DMK And Congress Seem Increasingly Untenable In Each Other's Company

The biggest stumbling block to the yet-to-be-born INDI Alliance is its supposed constituents.

The motley bunch of parties, seemingly led by the Congress, doesn't seem to have found any amount of cohesion to be called an 'alliance'.

And, of course, the southern ingredient in this melting pot, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), seems to be the biggest embarrassment for this putative formation.

Back in September, DMK dynast Udhayanidhi Stalin went hammer and tongs against Sanatana Dharma in a speech filled with bigotry and cussedness.

The likes of A Raja waded further into the murky waters and made it worse for others, but especially the Congress.

Among the many reasons for the fiasco for Congress in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh is the Hinduphobic crowing from Stalin Jr's troupe. Or at least that is what many analysts say. This defeat being so recent, one would have thought that the DMK would be chastened.

It is decidedly not the case, as the vituperative words from the DMK's Dharmapuri Member of Parliament (MP) D N V Senthil Kumar in the Lok Sabha confirm.

Kumar described the Hindi heartland as 'gau mutra states' — gau mutra is not only an anti-Hindu pejorative but also an epithet preferred by Pulwama mastermind, Jaish-e-Muhammad terrorist Adil Ahmad Dar, who referred to Indians as 'Gaay ka peshab peene wale (People who drink cow urine)'.

That a sitting MP should fall back on the language of the attackers of the nation is a new low that has been plumbed. And a squeamish Congress was quick to distance itself from the vitriol of the DMK.

But the other supposed constituent of the INDI ruff, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), concurred with the deprecating description.

Something Amiss Between The Two Parties

It is more than clear that the Congress needs the DMK and not the other way around. The Congress, for all practical purposes led by Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, is a party of the Hindi heartland.

Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, all owe their political allegiance to Uttar Pradesh, the epicentre of 'gau mutra states', as it were.

After such a low blow on Tuesday (5 December), the DMK and the Congress continuing to be part of the same alliance is untenable based on principles. But high ideals no longer exist in Indian politics, and it would be unfair to expect the same from the Congress and the DMK alone.

Kumar's crass comment will surely offer further impetus to the National Democratic Alliance (read the Bharatiya Janata Party) in the 2024 national elections.

It is clear that the Congress saw it as much and quickly worked behind the scenes in a troubleshooting exercise. The DMK was asked to pull up the foul-mouthed MP. But this is where things seem to have become a little tricky within the DMK.

Stalin did not openly call out his loose-tongued leader. Instead, the DMK organising secretary R S Bharathi — who, incidentally, is equally prone to such vile verbal attacks — issued a statement in which it was said that Stalin reprimanded Kumar.

Anyone in journalism who has covered politics would know immediately that this is a patchy, face-saving exercise, and something doesn't seem alright. Is this a rebuke wangled out of the DMK? Is Stalin really party to it?

The DMK honcho not openly coming out against his MP (we are merely told that he was unhappy with the words) makes it clear that things are not hunky-dory between the two parties.

Can The Words Fiasco Undo The Floods Fiasco?

Anyway, there is also the low conspiracy theory that the DMK MP's hate-filled fulmination may be a diversionary tactic to take the focus away from Chennai, where the party is facing the heat for its shoddy handling of the floods.

It may not be the case, simply because Kumar's brazen barbs seem part of the anti-Hindu rhetoric that the DMK is doling out with sickening regularity.

The DMK government has been caught out for its complacency and its vaunting talks on spending Rs 4,000 crore on stormwater drains, and floods-mitigation efforts in Chennai have been exposed for its hollowness.

On the repeated claim that things are better now than it was during the disastrous 2015 floods:

First, the 2015 deluge was made worse by the Jayalalithaa government's handling of Chembarambakkam waters.

Second, the single-day rain in 2015 was indeed higher. According to the numbers from the meteorological department, the highest rainfall in 2015 was recorded on 2 December, with Nungambakkam recording 29 cm and Meenambakkam registering a whopping 35 cm rainfall.

In 2023, the highest rainfall occurred on 3 December, with Nungambakkam and Meenambakkam throwing up numbers of 23 cm and 25 cm, respectively.

There are polemics around the quantum of rainfall over the week preceding the said dates.

In any case, it is clear that the DMK is clutching at straws. If even after spending Rs 4,000 crore and taking administrative lessons from the past, there is no respite from the problems for the common person, there are bound to be questions over governance.

The DMK in Chennai would be happy if some heat on it in the city is deflected.

Well, no amount of gau mutra talk can provide that.