AIADMK-Cong. ties: Brashness replaced by realism

By Javed M. Ansari

NEW DELHI, JULY 3. The ``on now, off now'' relationship between the Congress and the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu appears to have got a fresh lease of life as a fall-out of the present crisis. A team of AIADMK MPs currently in the Capital to muster support for their leader today maintained that the alliance between the parties was very much on.

``We are allies, the alliance continues,'' the State Education Minister, Mr. Thambi Durai, told reporters after calling on the AICC general secretary, Mr. Ghulamnabi Azad, at the Congress headquarters. Mr. Durai, alongwith the members of his party's delegation, called on Mr. Azad and Mr. Jaipal Reddy to explain the AIADMK's side of the story and the sequence of events. The delegation also handed over a copy of the video cassette recorded by the State police and a letter from the AIADMK supremo explaining what transpired last Saturday.

Encouraged by the Congress stand on the NDA Government's decision to recall Ms. Fathima Beevi, and the opposition voiced by it to attempts by the Centre to impose President's rule in the State, the delegation also discussed ways of ``working unitedly to thwart the Centre''. Emerging from the meeting, Mr. Thambi Durai said the two parties would ``unitedly fight the Centre's designs''.

AIADMK turnaround

The current stand of the AIADMK is a turnaround from the position adopted by Ms. Jayalalithaa during her visit to Delhi in early June. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had a day after calling on the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, declared that the alliance was meant only for the elections.

Officially the Congress maintained that as far as it was concerned it was always in favor of continuing the alliance. The AICC general secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu, Mr. Ghulamnabi Azad, said his party had taken the initiative to share power with the AIADMK in Pondicherry. The AIADMK also has a Minister in the Pondicherry Government in addition to the Speaker.

The sudden turn of events in the State and the closing of ranks in the NDA behind the DMK have also forced a rethink in the AIADMK. The brashness and indifference that was in evidence soon after its victory has now been replaced by a degree of realism. The party now realises that it needs allies at the Centre to fight off the NDA's attempts to impose President's rule in the State. The opposition, led by the Congress, is in a majority in the Rajya Sabha and it can prevent any move by the NDA Government to get the Upper House to ratify the imposition of President's rule.

Though the Congress leaders welcome the change in the AIADMK's stand, they are not reading too much into it. The party maintains that it has always been in favour of continuing the alliance, only this time it expects that Ms. Jayalalitha will not turn its back on the Congress once the threat of President's rule recedes.

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