G. K. Moopanar

THE PASSING OF G. Karuppiah Moopanar, president of the Tamil Maanila Congress, but who remained at heart ``a Congressman'', has taken away from the national arena a staunch nationalist and an uncompromisingly secular leader, whose instinctive commitment to principles and political ethics offered a quiet example in these increasingly dispiriting political times. The crowning moment and possibly most testing time for Moopanar's secular values was when he had the TMC vote against the Atal Behari Vajpayee-headed coalition regime in 1999 (after Ms. Jayalalithaa had walked out of the ruling alliance) by taking the principled position that he would not even indirectly help prop up any combine of which the BJP would be a part. Yet, his old-fashioned loyalty to the Nehru family, even in the post-1996 phase after he had parted ways with the Congress and started the TMC, was unflinching to a fault and this in its own way had an impact on the twists and turns national politics took, particularly during the days of the United Front Governments.

Cast as he was in the mould of his mentor, Kamaraj, Moopanar belonged to the rare breed of political leaders who, despite their popular appeal and stature, did not hanker after power and even shunned official positions. Not traditionally charismatic in the sense in which it is commonly understood, yet he struck a warm rapport with his audiences through his simplicity, his evident sincerity, unimpeachable integrity and an uncanny sensitivity to the needs of the masses. His uncommon civility and good cheer even with political opponents placed him apart from the general run of politicians. In the long years before 1996, if Moopanar had emerged as a sometimes ruthless executor of the ``high command'''s sometimes arbitrary ways, this was as much a tribute to his persuasive skills and affable demeanour as a measure of the trust and confidence he had commanded from Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. That in the process he had to earn the wrath of the several party colleagues at the State level or in the higher echelons of the central establishment for having `wronged' them hardly bothered him, believing as he did, that his duty was to smoothen the way for the Congress party leadership. While retaining his personal religious faith, Moopanar was a staunch believer in the rich multi-faith, multi-cultural tapestry of the Indian society and this made him unhesitatingly and firmly a believer in the need to preserve India's pluralist traditions.

Moopanar's style of functioning as the head of the TMC, a party that had emerged as the third major political force in Tamil Nadu, sidelining the Congress(I), brought out, in a sense, a democratic temper and preference for consensual approach to decision-making. But it was not all rosy, given his proclivity for extended deliberation, which resulted in a blurred ideological profile for his new party. The TMC has been seen to be drifting from its originally charted course as proclaimed by Moopanar and his lieutenants at the time of the party's birth - and that was to establish `Kamaraj rule' in Tamil Nadu. It was an irony that Moopanar who chafed often at the subsidiary status of the Congress in Tamil Nadu did not break away from the tactics of his parent party that he so despaired of. First, he allied with the DMK in 1996 and now with the AIADMK, shying away from the idea of a third front. Thus in a sense, the rationale of the TMC's formation was seriously undermined, with the cherished goal of `Kamaraj rule' remaining a distant dream. Yet Tamil Nadu, and indeed this country are certainly the poorer for the end of a rare politician, whose civility, commitment to principles and sense of ``political decency'' added up to a decidedly wholesome contribution to Indian politics.

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