Every 11th person in India finds C Joseph Vijay, Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister, the best suited to become the Prime Minister. For someone who has been a CM for barely four months — 114 days to be precise — India Today’s latest Mood of the Nation survey could be really heady. The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) founder was the third most preferred PM choice for 9.2 per cent of the respondents, with 48.7 per cent choosing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and 27.1 per cent Rahul Gandhi.
Vijay might well have become the third most preferred PM candidate within 100 days in the CM’s office, as the MOTN survey was conducted before 25 August. His ministers were already predicting it. “You work without looking at AM or PM, you are definitely the next PM,” said Human Resources Management Minister D Sarathkumar. Public Works Minister Aadhav Arjuna said it’s time for a PM from a southern state, which is ideally Tamil Nadu.
Don’t dismiss their remarks as mere sycophancy. Look at the videos in Hindi on social media. As my colleague, Shweta Tripathi, reported from Chennai, most of these videos are more wishful than factual — Vijay ordering death penalty, police encounters of the rape accused, waiving of private hospital bills, and increasing the state’s electronics exports to nearly half of India’s total within weeks. Who could be behind these Hindi videos? No prizes for guessing.
Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu aren’t amused by the Vijay-for-PM clamour, understandably. More so when he is preparing to enter Congress-ruled Keralam. S Devan, an actor-turned-politician from Keralam, has resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and is set to join the TVK. Vijay is obviously in a hurry.
A typical politician
It’s time for a reality check, though. Vijay-for-PM is a far cry. He has much to prove as a CM first. It’s early days but the reel-life hero has shown little originality as a real-life politician and administrator. He embraced his predecessor and ‘political enemy’ MK Stalin’s old friends — the Congress, the Left, the Indian Union Muslim League, and the VCK — to come to power. He is taking a leaf out of the traditional playbooks of established parties to consolidate his hold on it.
Six MLAs of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (AIADMK) have already resigned to join his party. The obvious idea is to get them re-elected in bypolls and reward them accordingly. One may, however, argue here that these moves are indicative of the reel-life hero learning realpolitik. Given that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagham (DMK) and the AIADMK were exploring the option of coming together and also the possibility of the imposition of the President’s Rule, Vijay arguably proved himself a smart politician by cobbling up a majority to form the government.
What may, however, trouble his admirers is the fact that he is turning out to be a typical politician since coming to power. It’s not just about the doles and freebies. In a reminder of vendetta politics during Jayalalithaa-Karunanidhi era in Tamil Nadu, he got the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Udhayanidhi Stalin, arrested for double entendre purportedly aimed at the CM’s actor-friend Trisha. He has rewarded those close to him with plum positions. He appointed his astrologer, Ricky Radhan Pandit Vetrivel, as an officer on special duty. He had to revoke it following public backlash, including from his allies. As he gained in confidence, he doubled down on it, appointing K Venkata Narayana, producer of his film Jana Nayagan, the government’s Special Representative in Delhi. Another producer of his films, Archana Kalpathi, was made a member of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department.
Taking a leaf out of former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s playbook, his government has set up an anti-bribery helpline urging citizens to furnish audio and video evidence of government officials taking bribes. This move is turning out to be popular, but Vijay has taken his anti-corruption drive to a different level, cancelling tenders across several departments. Taking a leaf from former Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy, Vijay has also cancelled or put on hold many infrastructure and development projects initiated by the previous government, including the Parandur airport, the Kanchipuram redevelopment plan, Chennai’s sports city, and Coimbatore’s stadium, among others.
Also read: Is Vijay’s TVK ideologically bankrupt?
Vague ideology
Like Jayalalithaa, Vijay remains inaccessible to his MLAs and even ministers. His immediate predecessor, MK Stalin, never addressed a press conference as the CM, a la PM Modi. They, however, did give media interviews. Vijay has completely stayed away from the media and so have most ministers. That’s adding more intrigue to the decision-making processes in the government. A sharp political observer from Chennai told me: “Nobody knows who is taking decisions in this government. Is it the CM? Or is it that ministers are taking independent decisions? Or is it the bureaucrats? There is so much opacity about the decision-making processes.”
For instance, who was behind the government’s controversial circular that prevented students from joining protests organised by the Left parties, which are in the ruling coalition, and the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). The circular was withdrawn following a backlash from within and outside the government. The CPI(M) has now demanded disciplinary action against Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary M Sai Kumar while the political bosses remain evasive on this issue. It couldn’t be the Chief Secretary’s decision, for sure.
So, what is it about Vijay’s politics or administration that made him the PM choice of every 11th respondent in the MOTN survey? His ideology is vague. Declaring the BJP his ‘ideological enemy’ doesn’t say much about Vijay’s ideology. From cancelling Chennai’s second airport project purportedly to protect the land and livelihood of farmers to sending a minister to Tirumala Venkateswara temple with the draft agriculture budget, his politics is equally confusing. He won’t even take a clear stand on delimitation, making a U-turn every step of the way. And his administration is so unoriginal. Altogether, his politics, ideology, and administration lack coherence and clarity. Essentially, even after 114 days in office, CM Vijay retains the enigma and charm of a reel-life messiah. His silence and aloofness is probably part of this well-crafted aura. That could be the only reason why every 11th person in India wants to see him as PM.
DK Singh is Political Editor at ThePrint. He tweets @dksingh73. Views are personal.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)