Category: Stalin

Chennai #8: the old man and the sea

3/3/2024

Tamil politics makes a point of celebrating its heroes. And how! In the past week a grandiose memorial has been inaugurated to M. Karunanidhi, who spent almost twenty years over four spells as chief minister of the state of Tamil Nadu.

He died in August 2018 at the age of 94. His son, Stalin, is Tamil Nadu's current chief minister.

The memorial-cum-resting place-cum-shrine is on a spectacular scale and, as is customary here, is on a large plot alongside Marina beach in the centre of Chennai. The design makes much of Karunanidhi's hallmark - the dark glasses he always wore.

The partly translucent white marble is from Vietnam. Stalin, at the inauguration, said the memorial to his father was a 'first wonder' on what he described as the second longest beach in the world.

When I visited on Saturday, there was a stready stream of people strolling around - many of them families, and some picnicking in the grounds.

Karunanidhi began his career as a scriptwriter in the Tamil film industry. His great rival Jayalalithaa - who spent fourteen years in Tamil Nadu's top job and died in 2016 - started off as an actor. Strikingly, her similarly OTT memorial is on an adjoining plot, again overlooking Marina beach.

I suspect, though I can't say for certain, that quite a few of those promenading round Karunanidhi's memorial also paid a call at Jayalalithaa's while they were in town. And then, I'm sure, they made for the beach, which is crammed with food stalls and lots of other excitements.

And of course, the new memorial is quite the place for selfies and group photos - a pity I didn't take one myself.

Unlike the memorials to national political leaders in Delhi, Chennai's monuments are neither flyblown nor particularly solemn. You go there with a smile on your face not a tear in your eye.

And then, of all things, I came across the old man himself on Marina beach - and, yes, I have a photo to prove it.

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Chennai 7-Up: Stalin @ 70 ... not forgetting the camel

1/3/2023

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Parts of Chennai feel like one big birthday bash today. It's Stalin's seventieth. And among the well-wishers, a camel - not something you normally see here. It's bedecked in the red-and-black colours of the local governing party.

Party loyalists were out in strength, also displaying the DMK colours -

And of course the Stalin whose birthday they are celebrating is M.K. Stalin, the chief minister of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. This is him -

The papers are full of it - mainly paid adverts and promotions, but also extending into the editorial content. The local edition of the Times of India has an article by a minister in Stalin's state government saying how marvellous his boss is and of course wishing him a happy birthday:

Though whoever came up with the tag line '70 Years of Stalinness' perhaps shouldn't have their contract renewed:

And I was surprised to see a paid advert from the Church of South India in which the local bishop extols the virtues of the chief minister.

I went along to the DMK party headquarters this morning to get a sense of the celebrations. The crowd was good humoured - a day out, something a little special ...

Stalin's been chief minister here for a little under two years. His father, M. Karunanidhi - one of several influential Tamil politicians of an earlier era who had their roots in the regional film industry - had four spells as chief minister totalling nineteen years.

And the name? Well, M.K. Stalin was born four days before the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died. Stalin was well regarded by many in India - and still is by some hard left factions. Karunanidhi addressed a memorial meeting for Stalin before a name had been bestowed on his son, and from that event came the name. (In this part of India, the father's surname becomes part of the son's middle name - so the surname is usually given rather than inherited.)

At the party HQ this morning, there were large numbers of women activists - outnumbered by the men but taking an active party in the day's events:

All those who came along got a free meal in an airline-style plastic tray and - a nice touch this - a mango sapling

DMK badges, flags and memorabilia were being snapped up (and yes, I even succumbed to temptation myself). By the way, the three men featured in the framed images on the right below with the yellow background are Stalin's father, Stalin and Stalin's son, an emphatic demonstration of dynastic politics

And then there was the camel - an essential at every Chennai birthday party (not!)

The poor animal was clearly not at all comfortable being led through the crowd, with traffic whizzing past and loud music blaring out

Why on earth would anyone want to bring a camel along to an event such as this? Well, I don't know but this is what I reckon: how does a party activist make a gift or a token of loyalty stand out when there are so many people with presents or offering expressions of undying support.

And if the benefactor's aim was to get some favourable media attention for himself, it worked!

But this is more than an over-the-top birthday party. Stalin is regarded as a competent chief minister. In Tamil Nadu he heads a local coalition that includes India's main opposition party, Congress, the two main Communist parties and others. He may have national ambitions. And certainly, the BJP looks just about certain to win next year's general election unless all the main opposition parties, and regional parties inimical to the BJP, can form an effective alliance.

Due in Chennai for a public birthday rally are the Congress national president, Mallikarjun Kharge, and other key out-of-state political leaders including Akhilesh Yadav, of the Uttar Pradesh-based Samajwadi Party, and Farooq Abdullah of Kashmir's National Conference. Is there a prospect of a powerful front emerging to challenge the BJP? Frankly, it's odds against - but it is an inriguing possibility.

UPDATE: the camel and the chief minister

If you are curious about the camel, and I certainly was, it did manage to have an audience with the chief minister, and was indeed a birthday gift to him. The next day's papers explained (but you saw the story here first!)

Then three days after Stalin's birthday, on 4 March, the Times of India had fresh news of the camel. After a bit of 'pass the parcel' (in this case, delete 'parcel and read 'camel'), the animal has had the relative good fortune to end up with a coiple of other camels in a rescue shelter. It's still a long way from its natural habitat in Rajasthan, but at least the birthday beast is being well cared for!

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Chennai 3: Stalin revisited

7/3/2019

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I went back today to the political wall painting I saw a couple of weeks back in the throes of composition. It show M.K. Stalin - leader of a key local party, the DMK - and his late father and party patriarch, M. Karunanidhi.

One of the photos I took of the artist at work was - to my intense surprise (and joy) - published by the Guardian. That's a first for me! Perhaps a last as well - but who knows ...

I wanted to see who else and what else had been included in the mural which, as you can see, is a fair old size. There are no more portraits. And the slogans? Well apart from the large script which could be translated as 'Hero Stalin', there aren't any.

The text of the painting consists almost entirely a list of the ward office bearers of the party - a roll-call of the local activists, who wish to bask in the reflected glory of their party leader.

One curious aspect of political protocol here - rival parties put up posters around the edges of the wall painting, but were careful not to obscure it. There's a strong informal code here - you don't deface your rivals murals but that could well lead to quite a dust-up.

An AIADMK poster

An AMMK poster

Both India's main national parties - the Congress and the BJP - have a foothold in this corner of south India. But the main parties are regional - and indeed Dravidian ... an expression of southern pride, a championing of the Tamil language and culture and (by and large) anti-Brahmin with an emphasis, notionally at least, on caste equality.

So as well as Stalin's DMK and the late Jayalalithaa's AIADMK (the governing party in the state) there's the DK, the AMMK, the MDMK, the PMK ... you get the picture.

And the DMK has just agreed a seat-sharing agreement for the imminent elections with, among others, the Congress and India's two main Communist Parties ... which have been described as, yes, tinged with Stalinism!

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Chennai 3: painting Stalin (he's on the left!)

20/2/2019

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Elections are just around the corner here - so it's the season for outsize political wall paintings, one of my favourite aspects of Indian politics. I came across one such work in the throes of composition in the back streets of Chennai.

It's good to see that some parties are sticking with the more expensive and time-consuming paintings, rather than just making do with posters ...

... which as you can see don't have anything like as much scale or impact.

This wall had been marked out for the DMK, the main opposition party in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which (helped a little by its alliance with Congress) is expected to do well when voting is held, probably in April and May.

When I suggested to the artist that his mural was in preparation for the coming elections, he got quite defensive: "no, not for elections", he insisted. Then the penny dropped!

India's powerful Election Commission places strict prohibitions on campaign wall paintings and all sorts of other once-standard election practices. But the dates of the general election have not yet been announced. So I suppose that the DMK hopes that this spot of street art will be seen as normal business rather than part of the election campaign. Hmm ...

The wall painting is of Stalin, the new leader of the DMK, and his late father, M. Karunanidhi, who was the longstanding party patriarch and spent in total the best part of twenty years as chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

Yes, I did say Stalin ... no, people here don't think it's at all strange ... well, this Stalin was born four days before the other Stalin died and was named after a leader who was widely admired in India at that time ... so, in South India, it's the given name rather than the inherited name which people go by ... his full name is Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, which you have to admit is a bit of a mouth full ... and yes I guess it could be seen as remarkable for a man called Stalin to come to power in the 21st century, but not in Chennai where he is probably the most popular political figure out.

I'm glad we've got that all sorted!

Stalin ...

... and his father

When I again passed by the mural half-an-hour later, a bunch of local DMK heavyweights had come round to inspect the work, and to instruct the artist which other party figures should feature.

They brought round a likeness of a DMK former mayor of Chennai, M. Subramaniam, to ensure that the painter could manage to make him recognisable,

And then, of course, they all posed for a photo.

Later: my photo makes the Guardian

Every day the Guardian publishes a reader's photo on the letters page - and from time-to-time I've submitted photos, but without success. But now the photo at the top of this blog has been published in the paper - result!

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Chennai #8: the old man and the sea

Chennai 7-Up: Stalin @ 70 ... not forgetting the camel

UPDATE: the camel and the chief minister

Chennai 3: Stalin revisited

Chennai 3: painting Stalin (he's on the left!)

Later: my photo makes the Guardian

Andrew Whitehead's blog

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​Andrew Whitehead'sBlog

Chennai #8: the old man and the sea

Chennai 7-Up: Stalin @ 70 ... not forgetting the camel

UPDATE: the camel and the chief minister

Chennai 3: Stalin revisited

Chennai 3: painting Stalin (he's on the left!)

Later: my photo makes the Guardian

Andrew Whitehead's blog

Archives

Categories

Andrew Whitehead's
Blog