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by IANS |
Chennai, Jan 3 (IANS) A.N.S. Prasad, spokesperson of the Tamil Nadu BJP, has raised a sharp political and moral question that continues to trouble the state even after 50 years: Why has Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, who was jailed during the Congress-imposed Emergency, chosen today to align with the very same party?
In 1975 then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared the Emergency, suspending civil liberties and crushing democratic dissent. On January 31, 1976, the elected DMK government led by Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi was dismissed, and President’s Rule was imposed on Tamil Nadu citing corruption and breakdown of law and order.
That very night, police forces arrived at the Gopalapuram residence — not to arrest Kalaignar, but his son, Stalin. Detained under the draconian Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), Stalin was subjected to severe custodial torture.
Across the State, more than 500 DMK leaders and cadres were arrested, beaten, and imprisoned and among those jailed was former Chennai Mayor Chittibabu, who courageously shielded Stalin from police brutality and later died as a result.
His sacrifice remains a poignant reminder of the excesses committed during the Emergency. For decades thereafter, DMK leaders and “MISA martyrs” publicly condemned the Congress every January 31, recalling the betrayals and authoritarianism inflicted on Tamil Nadu.
Prasad argues that this history is now being selectively forgotten. During election seasons, he says, the same DMK leadership that once denounced Congress tyranny abandons its self-respect ideology, travels to Delhi, and seeks electoral alliances with the Congress.
The contradiction becomes even starker when viewed through Tamil cultural history. The iconic 1952 film 'Parasakthi', produced by Stalin’s grandfather, boldly exposed Congress politics and anti-Tamil oppression.
Prasad contends that Tamil Nadu today deserves a new cinematic reckoning — MISA Prisoner Stalin — to document the brutal tortures of the Emergency, the dismissal of the DMK government, Congress betrayals of Tamil interests, and its role in the Sri Lankan Tamil tragedy.
Such a narrative, he says, must also question how Stalin, despite acknowledging these atrocities, now publicly embraces Rahul Gandhi as a political ally and “brother.”
Fifty years after MISA imprisonment, Prasad insists, the issue is no longer merely historical.
It is about political integrity, collective memory, and the price paid when power outweighs principle in Tamil Nadu’s politics.
--IANS
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