Corruption charges are non-issue, don't compare me to DMK, AIADMK: Anbumani Ramadoss tells Firstpost

Scion of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), Anbumani Ramadoss has been on an aggressive drive to revamp his and his party’s image for over six months now. His was the first party to announce a chief ministerial candidate – Ramadoss himself. A Barack Obama-style campaign saw Ramadoss’ team unveil the slogan “Maatram, Munnetram, Anbumani” (Change, progress, Anbumani), with even his photograph being used in a design similar to the one used by Obama. Four months ago, a draft manifesto was released by the PMK, promising development, change, free universal healthcare and imposition of Prohibition in the state. The PMK and Ramadoss have been aggressive in taking on the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) as well as the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), positioning themselves as a youthful, clean and modern alternative to both Dravidian parties. [caption id=“attachment_2564182” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Anbumani Ramadoss. File photo AFP[/caption] Will this work now, especially with a special CBI court ordering framing of charges against Junior Ramadoss in corruption cases during his tenure as health minister? Will the deepening slur of the PMK’s caste-based roots hinder the 47-year-old chief ministerial hopeful’s dream? In a wide-ranging interview with FirstPost, the former union health minister and current Lok Sabha MP faced questions about the corruption charges against him and his party being perceived as casteist. Firstpost: Maatram, Munnetram, Anbumani – you’re projecting yourself as the alternative to the two Dravidian parties. How is this going to work? What is the rationale behind such a plank? Ramadoss: People’s mindsets have changed. Fifty years of DMK and AIADMK rule in this state. People have come to an end point, they are fed up with it. They have not ‘ruled’ but ‘ruined’ Tamil Nadu for long years. They can’t give any new ideas, new schemes. The only new thing they give is freebies every now and then – whether it is a TV or a mixer or a grinder or a fan. That’s the only new thing they give. You have a new brand of whiskey coming out every month in the TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) – or a new gin, rum or a new beer. People have completely lost confidence. Firstpost: Have you done surveys? What do your surveys say? Ramadoss: Absolutely. The survey says that people are fed up with both of them. Ninety percent of youngsters are against them. The women are completely fed up. Because of a splurge in alcohol, their lives are ruined. My constituency is one of the most rural constituencies in Tamil Nadu. When I interact with them, the first thing the women say is that we don’t want buses, we don’t want roads, we don’t want hospitals or even drinking water. Close down the TASMAC shops. If you do that we will be very happy. That is the only thing the women want. Also both these parties have been given opportunities not for five to 10 years but for 50 long years and they have completely ruined it. People want a change and this perception has been there for the past 15 years. I’ll give you an example. When Vijayakanth stood alone 10 years back, people didn’t vote for Vijayakanth, they voted for change and that is why he was able to get 9 percent votes. But then when he went for an alliance all that changed. People are ready to vote for a credible viable alternative and we are projecting ourselves as that alternative. We have a huge votebank amongst the youngsters and in the last eight months we have conducted several huge conferences all over Tamil Nadu where lakhs and lakhs of youngsters have come. I can’t boast about myself but my party men say that we have the best chief ministerial candidate in Tamil Nadu where I am the only politician in this generation, all the others belong to the last generation. We are very confident that we will be chosen as the alternative. There is a difference in the political scenario pre-floods and post-floods. In the pre-floods scenario, Jayalalithaa said, “I can’t see an enemy for miles and miles away." But today, everyone has become her enemy. The public has become her enemy. She is out. She is absolutely out of the reckoning today. DMK’s Stalin is trying to take on the anti-incumbency factor but the floods have washed away all his dreams. The people have understood what caused the floods – partly it is nature and partly it is man-made. And the man-made part was because of both these parties. They have allowed encroachment of all water bodies without any long-term vision of planning. There is no cleaning up of rivers or lakes. People now know and the youngsters are the ones who are going to change things. They are very suave today with connectivity and WhatsApp and other such things. Social media played an active role in floods. Floods happened in 80 MLA constituencies of which Chennai has 22. In all these 80 MLA constituencies, she is not going to win even one seat. Chennai has got a link to all the people in the state – someone is working or studying or visiting relatives from other parts of the state. When connectivity was cut off for four days, people got worried. Everyone has been exposed. Stalin’s Namakku Naamey (We for ourselves) programme was all media hype. Some youngsters were saying that Stalin drove an auto, danced and drank tea from roadside shops. I asked them what did he say? They replied that they did not know. That is the key. Most of them felt it was comical. But what he said did not make any sense to anybody. And he didn’t say anything sensible either. Most of what he said was what I had already said – he was just copying me. People have lost confidence in DMK. It has lost credibility. Whatever DMK does, it is not going to help them. The AIADMK will be voted out every five years. Firstpost: As per your surveys, how much do you see your voteshare improving in 2016? Ramadoss: We are confident of getting 30 percent. Sixty percent of the votes in Tamil Nadu are neutral votes. Out of this 60 percent, two-thirds are youngsters from 18-25 years of age. The neutral voters today want a change. We are confident of getting the maximum number of votes of youngsters and women. Firstpost: You released a draft manifesto four months back, before the floods took place. Is there going to be a larger plan or scheme included in the final manifesto explaining measures that you will take to ensure such floods do not happen again? Ramadoss: What we are going to do when we come to power is – we are going to reclaim all the encroachments to what it was pre-Independence. That is one part of it. The law where we will claim all these back. The second part of this floods is that – we are going to have a Chennai Master Plan, not just for floods but a development plan for the whole city. Cuddalore district which is constantly affected by tsunami, floods, cyclones and all these things every year – there should be short term, medium term and long term plans to handle disasters in this district. These are the things which need to be done. Both Dravidian parties have failed in this. We should not reinvent the wheel; we should study what other countries have done and implement them here. Firstpost: You’ve been in alliances with one Dravidian party or the other for 15 years. You’ve done reasonably well in the Lok Sabha election in an alliance with the BJP. Are you or are you not with the NDA? Ramadoss: We are supporting the NDA. We have given a letter to the president that we are supporting (Narendra) Modi for five years. With the state BJP, we are taking a different stance. We are saying that except for DMK and AIADMK, anybody can join us. We are leading an alternative front here so whoever wants to join can join. The biggest mistake we did was to align with these parties. We have even apologised to the people for this. Firstpost: You are speaking of change and of being an alternative to the DMK and the AIADMK on a host of issues, one of which is corruption. There are charges of corruption against you: they are not proven and the case is pending in court, but the charges are there, just as in the case of DMK and AIADMK. Ramadoss: You can’t compare mine with the DMK. I mean even for arguments’ sake don’t compare my case with the DMK or the AIADMK, please. Firstpost: Well all the cases are still in court, trials are not over. Ramadoss: See, in the case of DMK, money has been found in the Kalaignar TV case and they have been in jail for a year. Sixteen former DMK ministers have been charged by the state government here. Sarkaria Commission has been formed by the Centre to probe Kalaignar Karunanidhi. If you see Stalin, his mother and sister are art of the chargesheet. As for AIADMK, everybody knows that the case is in Supreme Court and twice she has had to step down from chief minister’s chair due to corruption charges. My case is completely different – it is politically motivated. After five years of me demitting office, the Congress brings it out and they add my name to the case. It is a renewal for two colleges. The signatures were by the section officer, deputy secretary, under secretary, joint secretary, additional secretary and by myself. So they pick me and charge me for this. What happened to all the other people who have signed it? You mean to say I have a conspiracy with the section officer? Do you think a section officer can meet a Cabinet minister? And the permission which I have given has been upheld by the Supreme Court 20 days later. They have forgotten that, removed it and then chargesheeted me. Naturally there is no money or kind involved in this. All this is there in front of a court of law and I am confident that I will come out of this, I will be exonerated. You can’t compare me with the DMK or the AIADMK. Mine is a completely political case. Firstpost: Has this court development come at a wrong time for you, especially when you are taking a political stance of being the alternative in the state? Ramadoss: This is a non-issue. Only some DMK-allied media make it an issue. It is absolutely a non-issue. Firstpost: There are other cases against you like the one granted an interim stay by the Madras High Court recently – a case pertaining to the 2014 campaign where you are alleged to have distributed CDs containing material that is intended to cause “disharmony between communities”. Ramadoss: I have absolutely no clue what the case is about. This is a case by the government of Tamil Nadu. I don’t know what they filed it for. I don’t know what CD it is and I have no role in any of this. Firstpost: Another issue that your critics fling at you quite often is that your party is caste-based and in many cases even casteist. Ramadoss: How long do you want to ask these questions? Why do these questions repeatedly keep coming? I have already answered this many times to the media. It has become a non-issue, we have come out of that, why do you want to keep raking it up? Firstpost: As recently as 2012 your party was heading an OBC alliance.* Ramadoss: Not my party. My party, PMK, has nothing to do with any of these things. My leader may have done it but not my party. Every leader in every party has got a social issue. The party and the social issues are different. Don’t link up the party with the social issues. (*Context: In 2012, PMK chief S Ramadoss convened an umbrella meeting of intermediary castes, mainly OBCs. Termed as the Anaithu Samudhaya Periyakkam or Federation of All Communities, this group of caste-affiliated organisations of Thevars, Gounders, Vanniyars and others, met and drafted resolutions highlighting common problems faced by the intermediary castes. The main resolutions announced were all targeted at Dalits – about how Dalit boys were allegedly wooing ‘upper caste’ girls and blackmailing the parents for a share in property and a demand for prevention of alleged misuse of the Prevention of Atrocities Against SCs & STs Act as well as the Protection of Civil Rights Act. In fact Ramadoss Sr stated at the meeting that Dalit boys were wooing ‘upper caste’ girls by wearing jeans and sunglasses and that this must stop. This has been a recurrent theme with the party rhetoric even during campaigning in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.) Firstpost: So you don’t agree with it? Ramadoss: No no no, it is not my agreement or otherwise. Don’t put the party into that. My perception is different. Firstpost: What is your perception? Ramadoss: I mean, as a party, you can ask me. Firstpost: Can you explain that? As a party what is your perception of this issue? Ramadoss: What do you want to ask? What is your intention today of doing this interview?* [*Note: Anbumani Ramadoss has, of late, accused various media houses and journalists of being DMK and/or AIADMK sympathisers when asked tough questions or when critiqued in a journalistic fashion. Popular Tamil magazine Vikatan was the most recent target of his ire. Following the above mentioned answer Ramadoss, probably as part of his latest media strategy, went on to accuse this interviewer of being a DMK sympathiser, simply for asking uncomfortable questions for which he did not seem to want to respond.] Firstpost: You are saying that your party’s and your perceptions on this issue are different and that your leader does his own thing. Ramadoss: I have no comments to make on that. Firstpost: What is your stand on critics calling your party as a party that has indulged in casteist activities? Ramadoss: That’s nonsense.