Tamil Nadu - Politics
The Congress party was ruling at the Center as well as in all the states after the independence. The significant stage in the beginning of the post independence period was the passing of the Madras Village Panchayat Act, 1950. The Act was enacted in the implementation of Article 40 of the Constitution. Throughout the Independence movement, Gandhiji had been advocating the revival of the Panchayati Raj Institutions with adequate powers so that the villagers could have a real sense of ‘ Swaraj’. The insistence of Gandhiji resulted in the introduction of Article 40 (Organisation of Village Panchayats) in the Constitution of India.
The Madras Village Panchayats Act of 1950 provided for the creation of Village Panchayats in every Village or hamlet with a population of 500 and above. The Village Panchayats were entrusted with certain obligatory civic functions and a host of discretionary functions. But not all the villages were covered by the Panchayats.
Subsequently, with the launching of a nation-wide community development program, the need for an effective institutional mechanism to involve the local communities in the process of development was felt. The study team on Community Development and Panchayati Raj (popularly known as the Balwantrai Mehta Committee), constituted in the late fifties, recommended the establishment of a three-tier Panchayati Raj. The middle tier, namely, the Panchayati Samiti (Panchayat Union in the case of Tamil Nadu), was the key level in the scheme of decentralization. The Panchayat Union’s jurisdiction was to be co-terminous with that of a Community Development Block. At the district level there was a Zilla Parishad, essentially an advisory body. The Village Panchayat would constitute the lowest level in the three tier structure.
Under the State Reorganization Act of 1956, Madras lost Malabar district and Kasargod taluk, to the newly formed State of Kerala while Madras gained four taluks of Trivandrum district and Shencottah taluk of Quilon district of Kerala. The four taluks gained were constituted as Kanniyakumari district in the new Madras State.
The Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1958 was enacted immediately following the Balwantrai Mehta Committee Report. This paved the way for the formation of Village Panchayats through the length and breadth of Tamil Nadu. About 12,600 such panchayats came into existence. Villages which were acquiring urban character were classified as Town Panchayats. All the Village Panchayats and the Town Panchayats within a community development block were grouped together to form a Panchayat Union and 385 such Panchayat Unions were originally formed.
Congress gradually lost clout due to circumstances like the Chinese aggression debacle in 1962 and the death of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964. Regional Parties were on the rise in many states. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK for short) established itself as a political force in Tamilnadu, with it's hold on the youth of the state, who were alienated and restive due to ongoing anti-Hindi agitation. So, in the general election to the State Assembly in 1967, C.N.Annadurai, the DMK leader, galvanized the anti-Congress forces into a grand alliance, and captured power in the state, dethroning the Congress, and became the first Non-congress Chief Minister of the State.
Tamil Nadu did not go in for the third tier at the district level. Instead, a District Development Council was created under the Tamil Nadu District Development Councils Act, 1958 for each development district. Bigger revenue Districts were formed into two Development Districts for the purpose of Development Administration. These District Development Councils had to review and advise in statutory matters and development activities in the district. The erstwhile District Boards ceased to function from then on.
The new Mysore (Karnataka) absorbed some parts of the old South Kanara district (excluding Kasargod taluk) and the Kollegal taluk of Coimbatore district in 1960. Four hundred and five sq. miles of Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh was transferred to Madras in exchange for 326 sq. miles from Chengalpattu and Salem districts. The Madras State thus constituted has today an area of 130,000 km and is the fourth largest State in the country. It was renamed as ‘Tamil Nadu’ on 14 January 1967.
C.N.Annadurai, the unquestioned leader of the DMK, would have only a very brief tenure as chief minister, as cancer cut short his life, and he died in harness by early 1969. This led to a race for succession, and even though V.R.Nedunchezhiyan, who was the Number Two in the party and the Government, was the natural choice. M.Karunanidhi, a vastly capable, popular but scheming leader of the party, managed to thwart the former's elevation and ascended the Chief Minister's gaddi himself. The backing of Matinee idol M.G.Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR, and worshiped almost as a god by his fan-followers, was the deciding factor in tilting the scales in favor of M.Karunanidhi. But M.K.also could not complete his first tenure, as Indira Gandhi in 1971 dismissed the state government headed by M.K but the break was only brief, as the party and the leader bounced back within a short period when elections were held in the state within a short time.
When DMK was ousted from power, MGR chose to remain aloof, perhaps to avoid the consequences of opposing the central regime, and when DMK launched a mass struggle, he conveniently excused himself under the pretext of some out door shooting. M.K greatly peeved at this let down, was also becoming increasingly nervous of the continued mass popularity of MGR, which he considered a threat to his own position.
With a view to counter the filmy popularity of MGR, the CM decided to promote his own eldest son, M.K.Muthu as a matinee idol and an alternative to MGR in the year 1970. This proved to be a great political misadventure of his political career, because when the relationships soured later. MGR saw through this move, and to safeguard his own position, he quit the party under some flimsy pretext, and floated his own party named Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( ADMK) in 1972, taking away a huge chunk of his followers along with him to his new party. Later on MGR renamed his party as All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), and to this day, the party is known by the name.
In the initial years, following the reorganization, Madras State had 13 districts which rose to 14 by 1971. In the 1980s and 1990s, in keeping with the government policy of reducing the size of districts in order to accelerate development, many of the larger districts such as Ramanathapuram, Tirunelveli and Madurai were split into smaller districts. Several other districts were also bifurcated. With the recently formed Ariyalur district (carved out of the old Tiruchirappalli district) in January 2001, the total number of districts in Tamil Nadu stands at 30.
The Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994 was enacted consequent to the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution of India, which has prescribed a three tier Panchayati Raj system viz., the Village Panchayats, the Panchayat Union and the District Panchayats.
MK, the scheming politician, failed for the first time in his career to read the popular mood and underestimated the strength of MGR. He had to pay a heavy price, and could not stage a come back for full ten years, when MGR won the 1977 assembly elections,thrashing the DMK, to become the chief minister, and ruled the state for most of the next ten years till his death in the year 1987.
When MGR breathed his last in December 1987, it set off a succession war in his own party, this time between his widow, V.N.Janaki and his protege, J.Jayalalithaa. Initially Janaki managed to sideline Jayalalithaa and her supporters in the party and became the Chief Minister for just 24 days, before her Government was toppled. AIADMK was split into two factions, but while Jayalalithaa could put up a decent show, the Janaki faction was routed in the next hustings, leading to the re-unification of the party under the unquestioned leadership of J.Jayalalithaa. It should be admitted to the credit of J.J that she was the only leader in the annals of indian political history to reunite the factions of a split party, and reclaim the earlier "Two Leaves" election symbol, made some what iconic by MGR during his life time. She became the Leader of the Opposition in the legislative assembly.
When election to the state assembly was held next in 1991, AIADMK won a majority and JJ became the chief minister of the state setting in motion a musical chair for power in the state between herself and MK for the next couple of decades.
While these two parties go on playing the musical chair, there are the fringe parties including the National/ Left parties who keep on alternating between one or the other major players.
MK has made it an enviable art of switching allegiance to keep hanging on to a few Union Cabinet berths in Coalition Government. During the Emergency years, Indira Gandhi not only dismissed the state Govt headed by MK, but also imprisoned the cadres of DMK, including M.K.Stalin,the son of MK, under the draconian MISA, and allegedly subjected them to inhuman torture in prison. This made DMK a part of the post emergency Janata parivar at the Center. Yet, when he sensed the imminent disintegration of the Janata rule, he had no compunction, aligning with the same Indira Gandhi, invoking the plank of stability. He famously said: Nehruvin magale varuga. Nilayana Aatchi tharuga!.( Welcome to the daughter of Nehru. Please provide a stable rule).
Again, when the faction led by G.K.Moopanar revolted against the Congress high command for aligning with AIADMK in 1996, and floated a new political outfit, Tamil Maanila Congress(TMC) MK managed to align with them and worm his way into the United Front Govt of Deve Gowda and I.K.Gujral. When the continuance of the DMK in the Govt became tenuous, DMK gave a decent burial to it's Dravidian Rationalist ethos to join hands with the Hindutva BJP at the center. Again, when the fate of BJP became doubtful in 2004, DMK hitched it's star to the UPA bandwagon and continued to enjoy ministerial berths in the UPA I and UPA II Governments till recently, when it pulled out due to local political expediency. Even then MK did not let go an opportunity to seek Congress help for his daughter Kanimozhi for getting elected to Rajyasabha.
For her part, Jayalalithaa also played the coalition game to the hilt, as Vajpayee and his BJP Government must have known at a great cost.
The fringe parties and their Leaders: Then there are parties like PMK headed by Dr. Ramadoss, VCK led by Thol. Thirumavalavan, MDMK of Vaiko, DMDK of actor Vijayakanth and many more splinter/ casteist parties, having very little political mileage of their own, but add to the strength of Electoral fronts. About the National Parties like the Congress, BJP and the Communist parties, they have no game plan for the state level politics and are interested only in riding piggy back on either DMK or AIDMK for a few parliamentary seats. For none of them any idealogy counts, and their alliances are governed purely by political expediency. Then there are the occasional jokers like the Superstar giving "voice" only during some elections and become "dumb" thereafter.
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