Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

Left wants to keep DMK in good humour

By Suresh Nambath

CHENNAI FEB. 10. After sharing the platform with the DMK and other National Democratic Alliance constituents on a political issue, the Left parties are in a dilemma. Both the CPI and the CPI(M) want to keep the DMK in good humour, in anticipation of its returning to the secular front. At the same time, they do not want to be seen as endorsing the DMK alliance with the BJP.

Thus, both the parties have revised their stance that they would not participate in DMK-led agitations against the AIADMK Government. They have also sought to downplay the significance of their own participation in such protests.

This delicate balancing act became necessary once the AIADMK was ruled out as a potential ally. For the first time, the Left parties find that neither the DMK nor the AIADMK qualifies as a potential ally for their proximity to the BJP. While the DMK is actually a constituent of the NDA, the AIADMK is practising a `soft' version of the BJP's Hindutva policies. At present, the Left parties are not in a position to embrace either of them.

However, the compulsions of alliance politics demand that the Left parties do not offend the DMK. While Left leaders are not willing to state their preference for one or the other of the Dravidian parties, recent developments have clearly shown that only the DMK qualifies as a potential ally. In some instances, the AIADMK outdid the DMK, offering issue-based support to the NDA at the Centre. Gujarat was one instance where the AIADMK was closer than the DMK to the BJP position.

Moreover, developments such as the passing of the anti-conversion legislation revealed that the AIADMK Government was intent on creating a `Hindutva' space for itself in Tamil Nadu. The DMK, therefore, qualified as a `lesser evil' in the Left vocabulary.

However, the Left parties are not willing to let the DMK enhance its own credibility as an opposition force. At the moment, the DMK wants the political mileage derived from all major Opposition parties taking up its cause on a particular issue, but it does not want to quit the NDA.

The Left parties sense that this situation is inherently unstable. But, for now, they can only wait in hope of political realignments: in the hope of the DMK walking out of the NDA.

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