Chennai: It is quite comprehensible if the Dravidia Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) rank and file appears animated when the party chief M.Karunanidhi, who is indisposed, turned 94 on Saturday. 

If sycophancy has become part of Dravidian parties, trust their cadres to outdo others in celebrating their leaders, though one doubts whether DMK could beat AIADMK herein, as the latter is believed to have taken sycophancy to new levels or lows.  

Having said that, this year’s birthday fete of Karunanidhi holds some political relevance for people of the state, considering the current state of affairs under the Edappadi K.Palaniswamy-led government. Governance looks to be in shambles while the tug-of-war for power between the ruling faction and the splinter group led by O.Panneerselvam persists.  The absence of a coherent opposition is badly felt.  So people cannot be faulted if they expect some changes to emerge as a sequel to the opposition leaders’ get together at a public meeting in Chennai on the occasion of Karunanidhi’s birthday on Saturday evening.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D.Raja among others are expected to participate in a public meeting at Royapettah here. Leaders including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Lalu Prasad Yadav have wished the DMK patriarch in advance.

In her greetings, Sonia Gandhi referred to Karunanidhi as one of the tallest among contemporary political leaders. It was not an easy task to remain at the helm of a political party for 48 continuous years. It is quite possible that it is a record in politics in any democratic country, she added. The same sentiment has been reflected by Gopalakrishna Gandhi in his piece of writing on Karunanidhi in a leading English language daily today.(Gopalakrishna Gandhi reminds : “Has he not, as the one and only Kalaignar, the supreme word artist among its leaders, dominated the State’s political stage since 1969 when he became ChiefMinister at 45, reaching that office four more times, in 1971 at 47, in 1989 at 65, in 1996 at 72 and then in 2006 at the very mellow age of 82?”)

The mainstream media which saw an ‘able administrator’ and a `strong leader’ in Jayalalithaa but found a ‘shrewd politician’ in Karunanidhi. 

If the DMK patriarch is  ‘Kalaignar’ to his fans, he is a ‘Tamil fanatic’ to a section of the elites; he is a `hypocrite’ to pro-Tamil outfits. 

Or to be more precise, he was `pro-Tamil’ for the elites’ and ‘anti-Tamil’ for pro-Tamil outfits. 

Above all, Karunanidhi bashers can always fall back on the multi-crore 2G scam when they feel like assailing him.

On various occasions in his political career Karunanidhi has played a crucial role in national politics. Today, with the party reins in the hands of his son M.K.Stalin, this year’s fete can either be a game –changer or a drab affair.

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