Thirumavalavan

Recently, while I was driving in Chennai, I was surprised to find that DMK vehicles were driving decently. DMK is the ruling party, and they have never been known for being decent people, especially when they are in power. They usually drive very aggressively, as if the road and the state belong to them. I couldn’t believe what was happening. My friends say it’s due to the upcoming elections, but I find that hard to believe. Elections or not, they are naturally indecent people. In a party that was started by Annadurai, who was such a decent guy and a statesman, we find people like this. But somehow these guys were driving very decently, and I was baffled.

Then one day, while I was driving on Chennai One Road, a car suddenly cut me off. It had a blue and red flag on it, and there was a star in the middle. At first, I thought that, if someone was driving so indecently and in such an idiotic way, it must be someone from Vijay’s party. In fact, today, if you think of an idiot or a fool, or someone who’s brain-dead, the first image that comes to your mind is Vijay.

Then I saw a Twitter post. It was actually a “record dance”—an indecent dance that’s performed in Tamil Nadu. That dance was being performed in front of this very same flag I saw. It had blue and red colors with a star in between, and in the background, I saw Thirumavalavan’s picture. It was then I knew this was Thirumavalavan’s party.

Why so much violence?

I have no clue why Thirumavalavan’s people are so violent and indecent. Recently, they trashed a lawyer who had braked in front of Thirumavalavan’s car just because there was a speed breaker. He was in critical condition in the hospital, and the law never dared to touch Thirumavalavan. Stalin might be a coward, and he might not touch Thirumavalavan, but do you think the people will forgive him?

Before, too, I used to hear that his party members would go to a hotel, have a nice meal, and then refuse to pay the hotel owner. If confronted with the bill, the hotel owner would be trashed. I have also heard that hotel owners have been killed, but I have no firsthand knowledge of that.

Weird behaviors

I used to run a computer institute. At one time, there were two students. One was a guy who came on a Bullet and wore thick jewelry. He had Thirumavalavan’s photo on his phone. Another was a Sri Lankan boy who was so poor he didn’t even have money to buy food. The Sri Lankan boy was even bullied by the village officer here into giving five thousand rupees in order to get a certificate signed.

Despite the poverty and despite the injustice, the Sri Lankan boy paid me; no matter how much I refused, he wouldn’t accept it. He would just pay me. I felt so bad. India was the one which caused such misery in Sri Lanka, leading to the deaths of so many Tamils. We owe them a lot, as they have sacrificed a lot for us. Yet this guy would be honest and he would pay me.

Guess who didn’t pay me?

All these things matter, and from that day on, I never had any real sympathy for Thirumavalavan and his party, despite him showing high intelligence and high knowledge about suppressed people.

Decency matters

In the long run, decency matters in politics. Nobody is going to respect you—especially the middle class and above—unless and until you build a decent political party. If the DMK stops funding you, I think the second-largest funder will be the middle class of Tamil Nadu. Thirumavalavan should keep these things in mind and should concentrate on removing indecent people and bringing decent people into his party. Otherwise, no one will trust him.