Soon after Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth pitched for “Spiritual Politics” while announcing the launch of his party in January, many were very curious to know what he meant by it.
“Tamil Nadu is a highly religious state, but the politics played here revolves around atheism. So, when Rajnikanth talks about “Spiritual Politics”, he is appealing to the religious Tamil Nadu to stand against the atheist Dravidian parties. This is a fantastic formulation,” political analyst S Gurumurthy said in an interview with Republic TV’s Editor-In-Chief Arnab Goswami.
So clearly, Rajnikanth’s “Spiritual Politics” is nothing, but an anti-thesis of DMK’s atheist politics. But, how will it benefit Rajnikanth’s party in Tamil Nadu? This also is a compelling question asked by the people. In reply, Gurumurthy delved into the political history of Tamil Nadu. He brought to fore the repercussions of MG Ramachandran’s exit from the DMK, which resulted in AIADMK winning the state election by hogging anti-DMK and anti-Congress votes.
“In 1973, there were two poles – DMK and Congress. Congress had 39% votes and the DMK had 43-44% votes. When MGR was thrown out of DMK, everyone thought Congress would emerge as number one as DMK was divided. But what happened then was stunning. A chemical change took place in politics at that time. MG Ramachandran got 50% plus votes”, he explained.
Likewise, there is a high possibility of a similar chemical change happening after Rajnikanth’s entry into Tamil Nadu politics.
“His entry today is not ordinary. None of the parties can assemble 100 persons without paying money. See, millions of people are celebrating today because this has been the longing of Tamil Nadu that they wanted relief from this atheist, anti-Hindu, anti-national, oppressive politics by a person who will directly confront it. MGR and Jayalalitha in a way did it, but it was more an indirect attack on this solidified opinion,” Gurumurthy said.
Rajnikanth’s entry into politics is extraordinary because for the last three years he has been working hard to make his party’s presence felt. In fact, his party has reached 37,000 polling booths across the state, he said. “So, Rajnikanth’s behind-the-scene efforts cannot be underestimated,” he said.
On possible Rajinikanth-BJP tie-up in the future, Gurumurthy said the superstar would like to work together with the saffron party because would need a friendly central government if he succeeds in cobbling up a government.
“Clearly, there is an alignment of interest between BJP and him. But, the turn Tamil Nadu politics will have in the coming days cannot be imagined today because, after Jayalalitha and Karunanidhi, no party is a fortress. Anybody can jump off any party because every party is a collection of selfish individuals,” he added.