Days of Rajinikanth-Kamal Haasan 'truce' seems to be over

CHENNAI: Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, the two South superstars, called themselves friends as they planned to take their baby steps into Tamil Nadu politics late last year. In films, for more than a quarter century (after their initial fracas), they had learnt to live with each other, reining in their fans from attacking each other. They hoped to repeat it in politics as well.
Kamal even invited Rajini to join hands with him in the political journey and vowed to avoid personal attacks even if they have to take on each other. But days of truce may be over. An inevitable rivalry is brewing between the two heroes even as the traditional political rivals - the AIADMK and the DMK - are yet to be done with theirs. Kamal wants to know what Rajini's stand is on many sensitive issues including Cauvery. But he says he would wait to hear from Rajini. As usual, Rajini is biding time, but eventually, he has to speak up. "Still, I have not a become full-time politician. I have not announced my party. I don't want to talk anything about politics [now]," Rajini said in Rishikesh on Tuesday.

The two have realized that attacking each other is inevitable in electoral politics as they are fighting for the same space, seeking to fill the same political vacuum. Both are trying to attract people keen for a change. Rajini calls his vehicle 'spiritual politics' and Kamal 'dravidianism'. Rajini is trying to reinvent dravidianism of the DMK. Similarly, Kamal does not attack spiritualism. "They are toeing a fine line, cautious not to antagonize any section of voters," said political analyst M Kasinathan. While Rajini may eat into the AIADMK and BJP vote banks, Kamal may attract DMK voters, feels Kasinathan. Will they ever join hands? Rajini's refrain in the past has been, "Only time can tell". Ground reality is fast changing. Jolted awake by Rajini's popularity, the opposition DMK has whipped up linguistic fervor by triggering a parochial debate over Rajini's non-Tamil roots in an article that appeared in the party organ 'Murasoli' recently. Authored by Dravidian historian K Thirunavukkarasu, the article handed out a veiled threat to Rajini, reminding him that yesteryear Mumbai don Varadaraja Mudaliar had opted out of Mumbai mayoral election at the behest of Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray to avoid trouble to Tamils living in Maharashtra. DMK's attempt is to brand him a "rank outsider, trying to usurp Tamils' right to rule Tamil Nadu".

By a strange logic, the article also questioned Rajinikanth's loyalty quotient to the cause of the Tamils by pointing out that eminent lawyer T Rangacharyar, a distant relative of Rajini's wife Latha, had opposed the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment bill introduced by the Justice Party in Madras Presidency way back in 1925. Rajinikanth was not even born then. Obviously, Rajini is not being tried for his deeds, but for what a distant relative of his wife did close to a century ago. The DMK feels compelled to attack Rajini as the next poll could be a fight between Stalin and him. Having come to public life, Rajini has to learn to live with such attacks.