K Ramanathan Iyer
It's very sad that Congress has lost one of its mass leaders. What is more pathetic and regrettable is that about 150 families had lost their dearest ones – fathers, mothers, brothers or plainly bread winners.
Yes, I am talking about the untimely demise of Andhra Chief Minster Y S Rajashekara Reddy and deaths of over 150 of his followers. One of those followers, who had committed suicide, has written in his note that since YSR has dedicated his life for the masses, he was dedicating his life for YSR before consuming pesticide. Height of madness, indeed?
In Tamil Nadu too, when matinee idol and former CM MG Ramachandran died in US , followers back home went on a rampage torching and attacking vehicles and homes of opposition party followers and leaders and several people in the rural areas had even committed suicide to show their "love" to their leader. Not long ago, we have seen a spurt in suicides over Sri Lankan issues.
What happened to those families who had lost their breadwinners? None of the political parties/leaders had ever turned back at them and I am sure these families would be languishing in penury.
What is Vaiko doing and where is VCK leader Thiruma? The latter even rode on the sympathy wave and became an MP. Did he do anything for the families whose main members had committed suicide for "his" (personal) cause?
You love a leader and you follow his principle. Nothing wrong in it. But when the love becomes obsession, madness creeps in and family comes last for these people.
Idol worshipping is a big political gamble down south. Be it in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka or Andhra, people just follow what their silverscreen heroes order them to do. They would do anything for their 'Thalaiver (leader)'. They would even die for them. Will they die for their own mother or father? They won't. Because they are not good orators, they don't know how to make them live in a dream world or virtual world and they don’t help them to do wrong things.
If 67 people died for YSR, some six lakh people should have died for Mahatma Gandhi? If one wants to show respect to his/her leader, he or she should follow the path shown by him. By committing suicide would no way help anyone, at the same time, this would put unnecessary pressure on the family. Did any one think about how their spouses are going to raise their children?
To think on this line, education is paramount. Most of those killed themselves for the sake of their leader, are poor and uneducated who got scared of their existence in the absence of YSR who dolled out several pro-poor developmental schemes for them.
To stop such unnecessary deaths in the event of a leader's sudden demise, parties concerned should assure all support and assistance to people in the absence of any leader. No leader should be considered taller than the party.
There should always be a political successor in a party. Take a cue from DMK in Tamil Nadu. Everyone knows for sure that after DMK patriarch’s time, there will be a smooth transformation of power to his son MK Stalin (since trouble maker son MK Azagiri has got a central ministry). But this is not the case with AIADMK where the party will go for a spin in the absence of Jayalalithaa.
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