The future leaders and citizens of India are up in arms and in the streets of Tamil Nadu protesting for a harsh resolution against Sri Lanka and to declare its incumbent president as a war criminal. A lot of voices have endorsed their support to this protest by the students, who usually do not get involved in any political issues as such. This being a brief about what is happening in the state, it is imperative to look at the larger picture of how these protests are being politicized. The main focus here is about DMK playing a trump card with these protests to gain political brownie points, in the view of the upcoming Parliamentary elections in 2014.
The pull-out
The one notable and sensational headline visible after the protests against Sri Lanka kicked off, was the DMK deciding to withdraw its support for the UPA government in the center. The DMK is the second largest party in the ruling alliance and has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha including some minsters in the cabinet. A star politician in the cabinet that needs mentioning is Mr. M. Karunanidhi's son M.K.Alagiri.
With the DMK severing the ties with ruling alliance the UPA might have lost a bit of ground, yet they are stable with the support of parties like SP which though not part of the mainstream alliance but provide an outside support to the ruling party. One thing is to be made very clear, no party, both ruling and alliance don't want an early election.Both the ruling and the opposition do not have a very popular name to get them elected. News of corruption and scams from the ruling side comes up quite like a weekly edition of magazine. The opposition do not have a consensus over their Prime Ministerial candidate yet. So one thing for sure is that, the voters do not need to get their nails inked until 2014. But there always lingers a sense of drama when a party acts as if it holds the power plug to the government despite that not being the fact.
The party MPs quit the alliance as a mark of protest against the laggard attitude exhibited by the ruling in the Sri Lankan issue and in the subsequent draft resolution.
Playing the Demographic advantage
This move by DMK looks like more of a political move rather than a protest. One thing to be very keenly looked upon is the timing of this decision. The DMK decided to pull the cord at a time when most of the students, in other words, most of the first time voters were involved. The party at the moment have nothing to boast off that could ensure some seats to the Parliament. DMK had come under heavy criticism especially after the 2G scam which derailed their political campaign to give the ADMK a very convincing win in the state assembly elections. The DMK evidently has started on calculations for the future and them quitting the ruling alliance is the first step.
One thing that must be done by any party to ensure a comprehensive win in any election is to get the first time voters on board and the number of first time eligible voters have multiplied by several folds in the past 5 years. It is mandatory to gain the popularity of these youngsters to foster some good numbers for Lok Sabha, so that DMK is in a bargaining position, no matter which party comes to power.
This pull out from the UPA government is definitely bound to be used as a political campaign strategy by the DMK.
The trump card
As indicated in the title of this article, this act by DMK is nothing more than playing their trump card which had just come to their hands in the form of students protests. This protest, though initiated by a group of students of Loyola College, Chennai, spread like a wild fire to other colleges as well, bringing in all medical, engineering, arts and science colleges within the ambit of this protest.
Many parallel this protest to the Anti-Hindi agitation of 1965, where it witnessed a huge turn out of students to protest against the proclamation of Hindi as the sole official language of the then Madras State. The protest in 1965 was famous not only for the student turn out it witnessed, but also the violence that it brought along.
The then DMK party had capitalized on the Anti-Hindi agitation and won the consequent election that followed in 1967. Similarly, the protests on moving a very harsh resolution against Sri Lanka would be used as a political tool to gain DMK back the ground it had lost in the past few years.
A protest too late?
Many seem to feel that this huge uproar by the student community seems to have come a little too late. This comes after the Indian government refused to make any amendments in the draft resolution sent by the US. The government labelled it too late to make any amendments.
Now with the resolution being successfully moved in Geneva and not surprisingly it carried no harsh amendments, there is a call for continued protest in the state by the students. It seems very pointless to continue this protest, as there is really nothing to be done.
When asked one of the students about the cause for the protest, there came a very vague reply saying "it is about the Sri Lankan issue". The sad part of it was that, the student studying in a private engineering college, was not able to detail upon what the issue was really about. So with this, arises a question of how many students are really legitimate in this protest? One thing to be noted is that this particular private engineering college is gearing up for the protest in their premises from today (25/03/2013). Though it is agreeable that by declaring a blanket holiday, they were not given time and space to protest, the protest could turn out meaningless other than for the sake of registering their voice as a formality.
Despite many political flag points that this protest carried, it is really appreciable that students took it to the streets and putting out a clear message that they are not bound only to the four walls of classroom. Given the timing of it,when students are quite often labelled to be uninterested in social issues, this protest of theirs comes as a clear voice which says otherwise.
