UAE prime minister on two types of administrators!

Thiruvananthapuram: As the debate over whether or not Centre should accept foreign aid to help rebuild flood-ravaged Kerala persist, the vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's tweet on `two types of administrators' become noteworthy. 

The tweets differentiate the first type of administrators as epitomizing goodness who love to serve the people. Their happiness is in facilitating human life. Their virtue is in giving. Their achievement is in changing lives for the better. They open doors. They offer solutions and they always seek to benefit people. The second type, however, follows procedures to make human life more difficult. 

The tweets are in Arabic under the subtitle what life has taught him.

On August 21, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s office informed that the United Arab Emirates will provide Kerala an assistance of Rs 700 crore.

Kerala has a special relationship with UAE, which is a home away from home for Malayalees. “We express our gratitude to UAE for their support,” he announced.

The CMO said this was communicated to prime minister Narendra Modi by Crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of UAE’s armed forces Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan. The assistance of UAE was first informed to Malayali businessman and philanthropist Yusuff Ali M.A.

Earlier, the prime minister himself tweeted thanking UAE for `its gracious offer to support people of Kerala during this difficult time.' The UAE supreme commander’s concern reflects the special ties between governments and people of India and UAE. Modi said.

But when the Centre decided to stick to an old policy and chose to turn down foreign aid including the Rs 700 crore offered by UAE, among others,  Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac described Centre’s decision as ‘unfortunate’ and hinged on ‘false prestige.’

The Kerala BJP leaders, in turn, trained their guns on Pinarayi Vijayan accusing him of misleading the nation over an offer which, they claimed, UAE didn't offer.

Meanwhile, on Monday,  the BJP mouthpiece in Kerala Janmabhumi criticized union minister Alphons Kannanthanam for appealing to his own government for a change in policy on foreign aid that they `inherited’ from the previous Manmohan Singh government  The Janmabhumi edit suggested that Kannanthanam should have shown restraint when communicating his views in front of the camera. 

The unsparing edit suggested that Kannanthanam would have acted out of smartness. But over-smartness may backfire. By spending one night in a relief camp did Kannanthanam receive any applause? All that he gained was stone pelting from the social media, it said.

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M.Karunanidhi finally bows out. The 94-year-old Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) president and former chief minister of Tamil Nadu died in the intensive care unit of Kauvery Hospital, here, on Tuesday evening after a prolonged illness.

It seems this time around the indefatigable man of comebacks couldn’t fulfill the wish of his supporters who thronged the private hospital premises in Alwarpet expecting, one more come back, from the old warhorse. 

‘Dr.Kalaignar’ (artist or creator) to his supporters, Karunanidhi showed signs of declining health since he underwent Tracheostomy in December 2016 following difficulty in breathing caused by throat and lung infection.  

The patriarch held the reins of DMK for nearly six decades. He traversed from theatre to movie to politics; became chief minister of the state five times and completed 50 years as DMK president on July 27. 

His death marks the end of a long and eventful journey, dating back to the pre-independence era. It was interspersed with ups and downs. It took off from an obscure village called Thirukkuvalai tucked in the tail-end region of Cauvery.

Born Dakshinamurthy to Muthuvelar and Anjugam Ammaiyar, belonging to the Isai Vellalar (Temple musicians and dancers) caste, on June 3, 1924, the young Karunanidhi stole the limelight with his incisive pen; first in theatre and thereafter as a dialogue and scriptwriter in cinema. Films such as Parasakthi,  Poompuhar, Manthiri Kumari and  Marudhanaattu Ilavarasi carry the stamp of Karunanidhi, standing up to the acting prowess of Sivaji Ganesan and popular appeal of his political rival MG Ramachandran aka MGR.  Karunanidhi and MGR would, later, take on each other in the sphere of electoral politics.

Karunanidhi’s literary interests, unfortunately, stagnates with the classical period. 

He entered politics when he was a teenager influenced by an array of factors including the speeches of Alagiriswamy of the Justice Party. He went on to become CM after the death of C.N.Annadurai in 1969. His government was dismissed in 1976 by the federal government led by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Karunanidhi returned to power after 13 years.

In 2011 his party was defeated in state elections by the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, led by his arch-rival J. Jayalalithaa.

By the time the multi-crore 2G scam in which DMK leaders including his daughter Kanimozhi were implicated, the dynastic politics and family squabbles et al contributed to the decline of the party.

Karunanidhi was reviled by majority elites and right-wing supporters,  for, among other things, his unsparing criticism of Brahminism and his pro-reservation stand.

His reticence during the mass killing of Tamil people during the final phase of the civil war in Sri Lanka made him a foe of pro-Tamil outfits. 

But an autorickshaw driver in Chennai, Jayakumar vouches that all far-sighted projects that the state has seen were brought during the reign of Karunanidhi. 

"You can see for yourself that all major bridges, flyover (including Anna flyover)  were launched by Karunanidhi," he says.

No doubt, Karunanidhi's supporters will miss his raspy voice which warmly addressed them as `En uyirinum melana anbu udanpirapugale’ (My dear siblings more precious than my own life). They would miss the black spectacles and the yellow fabric worn over his shoulders  - all that which epitomized him.

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