The political development snowballing within the DMK, a key component of the UPA Government in the Centre is unfortunate and calls for restrain on the part of the players involved. The DMK party decision to get Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran sacked from the Union Cabinet is uncalled for and could have been avoided but for the skewed wisdom within the DMK. It is quite interesting that the reasons cited for taking this decision was because Maran had brought “serious embarrassment to Chief Minister M Karunanidhi” and for exposing “chinks in the party’s first family”. Obviously it is clear that Maran is being blamed for the publication of a public opinion poll, which was conducted by ‘Dinakaran’, a daily owned by the Union Minister’s elder brother Kalanidhi Maran. If this is the case, then one would have to take into account the fact that the three people who lost their lives was as a direct result of the attack carried out by DMK workers owing allegiance for M K Azhagiri, elder son of Karunanidhi, after Dinakaran carried a survey which claimed that 70 per cent of the people favoured the Chief Minister’s younger son M K Stalin as his political heir while only two per cent pitched for Azhagiri. It is baffling to understand as to what crime the newspaper ‘Dinakaran’ had done. After all, a newspaper does not get its mandate from any particular individual or family but from the public.
The larger point of press freedom cannot be ignored in this case because the entire episode is also seriously questioning the independence of the Press. It is obvious that the independent nature of public opinion has yet to be fully appreciated by the DMK leaders. Firstly, one cannot control or manipulate such kind of public opinion polls and it will not be fair to blame ‘Dinakaran’ or for that matter Maran for the outcome of what the poll has to say. It is the public who have opined that MK Stalin should be the heir to Karunanidhi and not the management or Editor of the newspaper. And if this truth has hurt the sentiment of a particular individual or his supporters, they have every opportunity to prove otherwise through other means but the right does not belong to them to destroy public property or resort to violence.
The attempt to ridicule or even brush aside such opinion seeking exercise especially by those at the helm of affairs is not a good sign and does not augur well for the emergence of a vibrant democratic society. If anything, public opinion if taken seriously can enhance democracy, promote open society, improve communication among people and most importantly create the necessary space for understanding and dialogue to take place. The viewpoint as expressed by the public can turn out to be the most effective way of addressing issues and also an important source of getting to know the mood of the people on vital issues. The question is whether the DMK leadership is at all serious about listening to the voice of the people. To ignore it would be at its own peril.
