Tuglak lane.
New Delhi
Dear Mr.Rahul Gandhi,
Sub: Congress affairs in Tamil Nadu-regarding
I an old Congress member from Tamil Nadu. As you may be interested to know that I had moved closely with Pandit Nehru and Kamaraj and other senior leaders in the early 1960s and also worked at the AICC when the late Kamaraj was the AICC President and when was live.
In 1967 I was at the AICC and I wrote the Congress election pamphlets.
I and my other Oxford friend, Rudolf de Mello became ardent Congress members when we were both at Oxford in the early 60s and after coming back to India De Mellow became the Youth Congress President.
I later became an MLC in Madras in 1968 when the Congress was defeated by the DMK in 1967.
When Kamaraj and the Congress were defeated and were out in the cold, my election victory as an independent was hailed by Kamaraj as the first victory for the Congress in the state.
But alas! The history of the Congress from 1969,the split in the party, the coming of the Emergency, the later coming of the Janata government and later in 1980,the coming back of Mrs.Indira Gandhi are all now history.
The point I want to bring for your serious attention is that after 1967, the Congress party never recovered in Tamil Nadu and today, for the past 43 years the DMK and the Dravidian parties ruled the state.
I was in Tanjore just now, on the 27th of June I went to one village, Needamangalam, near Kumbakonam and I participated in a Congress meeting and the newly-elected Youth Congress workers, both young men and young women were present.
Now, I am leading a broad national front, called Kamaraj Peoples’ Front, comprising the Congress loyalists, mostly those Congress party workers and leaders who strongly feel the Congress party must contest independently, break off its alliance with the DMK and organise a front with other parties.
Of course, this broad feeling is still not fully articulated.
As for the Youth Congress and from what I have spoken to the newly-elected youngsters, they said that experts had come from New Delhi and trained them. When I asked them what training they got they said they would propagate the Central government’s welfare schemes to the people.
Now, I have had long experience with the Indian Youth Congress. Starting with Rudolf De Mellow time to Sanjay Gandhi, then Rajiv Gandhi days, from Kamaraj to Indira Gandhi times, the Youth Congress was always used as a prop by the parent party.
When the elections come the parent party just ignores the youth cadre and selects and distributes tickets on factional strengths of leaders.
So, in Tamil Nadu what chance for the Youth Congress workers when the 2011 Assembly elections come?
As I see and these are the realities I want you to know.
The DMK had now thoroughly corrupted the Congress party. The TNCC is under the vice-like grip of the DMK. The TNCC President works at the beck and call of the DMK chief. TNCC doesn’t do any work, doesnt do any party propaganda except to issue press statements to support the DNMK’s many ant-Congress propaganda.
It is an open secret in TN that the Congress MLAs, some 35 of them are under the hold of the DMK, rumours float about how many of the MLAs and the TNCC are on the pay roll of the DM, party and government.
Why the MLAs and the TNCC?
There are wild rumours that even the Central Ministers are “bought out”, the Ministers, insiders say, wont upset the DNMK applecart, the Ministers would only work for the present status quo. That is, the DMK-Congress alliance would be continued, even there is talk, the DMK’s strong man, and elder son of the DMK chief that the DMK might even threaten to go alone if the Congress doesn’t oblige the ruling party to do what it wants to do.
So, what chance for the Youth Congress workers? Will they get some seats in the DMK-Congress alliance talks?
There is every chance that the Youth Congress workers hopes might all become dashed!
The DMK would see to it that even in the Congress only those candidates, who have been corrupted as of now, might get renomination.
The point here is that whatever your efforts in other states, be it UP or Bihar might work, that might not work here, for the DMK is a more powerful machine, its manipulative skills are very great and even if the Congress President or yourself want to change the equations in the state, the very Congress unit in the state might not play to the dictates of the AICC.
The DMK is a fascist organisation in a democracy.
This, I hope, you have realised. If not, it is time to realise this harsh truth!
So, I have formed the broad nationalist front, there are so many outfits, small and big parties, NGOs and other social and cultural forces, secular forces and the very mass of the Tamil people who are all disgusted with the corruption and maladministration (there is no administration whatever, police is made powerless, there is an irretrievable trend towards an one-party, one-person dictatorship in a democratic cover-up.
I have a few suggestions to make here.
One, the Congress must encourage outsiders, those who are not within the TNCC, there is a vast reservoir of Kamaraj loyalists who are now dejected and outside the official party and also the very general public, comprising of the rural and urban poor, the middle classes and the very rich upper cuts who are all disgusted with the DMK’s autocratic rule and want to vote out the party. But this can’t be done by the TNCC alone, as I have already said is corrupt to the core and also in the pay roll of the DMK.
The intellectual class is thoroughly disgusted. The just concluded International Tamil Conference at Rs.500 crore expenditure was a thorough waste of poor people’s tax receipts only.
But the emotional appeal of the Tamil language is very real and the Congress can’t hope to capture the imagination of the Tamil people, unless the party also takes up the Tamil cause, Sri Lankan Tamil cause etc.
Second, I propose to issues a platform, some definite programme, say what the party would do if it is voted to power. There has to be a state-specific programme of action.
I would put abolition of corruption at the top, establishment of a Lok Ayukta, on the Karnataka model, closing down of the much-hated TASMAC liquor shops, police reforms etc. The DMK and the ADMK and other caste parties, along with the extremist outfits and the Communist parties won’t disappear in a day!
So, there must be an immediate revamp of the TNCC. Now, the same man, who is so corrupt and people wonder what is the need for continuing the same face for the second time. Is the TN unit not capable of getting the right persons for the jobs?
TNCC is so bogus, it is almost non-existent. There must be a fair representation for the DCCs, the DCCS themselves need some revamp.
I am sure the Congress President must be fully aware of the sorry state of the state unit of the Congress.
I personally don’t want any post or office, now or after. This I want to make clear.
I am a member of the Indian National Congress since 1962.I shall remain so even after any other changes. The party is 125 years old and I am fully aware what politics mean and what it should mean for the mass of the India people.
I had met and talked with some of the greatest names in history, Pandit Nehru, first of course whenever he used to visit Santiniketan when he was the chancellor of Visva Bharati, then in England I had visited the Irish President Eamon de Valersa, the French Premier of the Fourth Republic Guy Mollet and many others.
I am even now by purely altruistic motives and this is now an endangered virtue! Then, this is what I am!
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
V.Isvarmurti
http://www.isvarmurti.com/2010/07/02/letter-to-mr-rahul-gandhi-mp/
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