Vishnu Dath

religiously reads LiveLaw updates for a living

[Vishnu Dath @shnudutt]

@raghav_chadha കിടന്ന് അങ്ങ് മെഴുകുവാ

[sandi @sandrita_luv]

happy spb day <3

[Ilaiyaraaja @ilaiyaraaja]

No one understood a composer's vision faster, and no one poured more focus into a song than SPB. Celebrating the life, friendship, and the unmatched achievement of 50,000 songs. Happy Birthday, SPB.

[Vishnu Dath @shnudutt]

@iamdatemike Oh so true. Chennai water/heat idk what it is, but the hairfall has been crazy over the last few months

[Vishnu Dath @shnudutt]

@vapachidelegacy Broker Mathaichan: Molde kettu kazhinjallo. Santhoshayi

[Vishnu Dath @shnudutt]

Thank you Jeethu Joseph @jeethu4ever for #Drishyam3. I wouldn't have known Kalyan Jewellers has a showroom in Thodupuzha if not for you. Tbh, I missed the MyG reference. Let's make it up in part 4

[Aakar Patel @Aakar__Patel]

@IndiaToday this is not a serious country

[Bee🌻🇵🇸🏳️‍🌈 @rangolaholahola]

BR is one of the most insensitive interviewers and he must quit immediately coz wtf is this

[Abhishek Sabu @abhishekvs0198]

എന്തൊക്കെ ബഹളമായിരുന്നു.

[Mitsuki Das 🐧 @mitsuki_x_10]

Vijay's biggest tactic is being silent while chaos takes over and multiple narratives being set.
He is very scared of speaking up.
He speaks only when he thinks he is safe. Same happened with Karur tragedy, same is happening now.
Such cowardice will not help in long run.

[Karthick Ramasamy @karthickmr]

Whatever the causes behind the DMK’s defeat in Tamil Nadu, and whatever role the party’s first family may have played in creating public resentment, I still continue to regard M K Stalin as one of the few real statesmen left in Indian politics.

In Indian politics, defeat usually produces denial, arrogance, silence or revenge. Rarely humility. That is why Stalin’s response after the election stood out so sharply.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, after the shocking electoral collapse of the Left in Kerala, has not even cared to release a simple two-line Facebook post consoling emotionally shattered cadres and followers. Thousands of ordinary CPM workers who defended the party for years were left directionless after the verdict. Silence became the political response.

Mamata Banerjee, after suffering humiliation in Bengal in another phase of her political journey, publicly declared she would not resign. Across India, leaders often treat electoral defeat as temporary inconvenience or conspiracy. Very few acknowledge the emotional investment of ordinary workers.

But Stalin chose another path altogether.

The very next day after counting, despite losing even his own constituency Kolathur to an electoral novice from Vijay’s TVK, Stalin went back to the locality. No anger. No drama. No blame game. He walked among the people and thanked them for standing with him for decades. Videos from the locality showed emotionally overwhelmed party workers crying openly. Many held his hands. Some could not control their tears. Stalin attempted to console them instead.

That moment mattered politically because it reflected something increasingly absent in Indian politics. Democratic culture.

Today I saw The Times of India Chennai edition carrying his interaction where Stalin said he would not disturb Vijay for the next six months if the latter forms the government. He said he was not interested in creating instability in Tamil Nadu. He said people should not be dragged into another election. He expressed hope that the new government would continue welfare schemes while implementing TVK’s manifesto promises. Only after six months, he said, would the DMK begin constructive criticism as Opposition.

That is not weakness. That is political maturity.

To AIADMK leaders who mocked the DMK after the defeat, Stalin simply responded that the DMK would sit in the Opposition. Nothing hysterical. Nothing desperate. Just clarity.

One must remember that the DMK is not an ordinary electoral machine. It is one of the most ideologically rooted Dravidian movements in modern India. The party survived dismissals, Emergency-era repression, corruption allegations, splits, the deaths of towering leaders, and repeated electoral destruction. After MGR’s rise many predicted the end of the DMK. After Jayalalithaa’s dominance many wrote its obituary again. Yet the party returned each time because its social foundations remained intact.

Stalin himself spent years under the shadow of Karunanidhi. Critics mocked him as politically weak and lacking charisma. But over time he rebuilt the party structure patiently. He strengthened welfare politics. He sharpened the DMK’s secular positioning at a time when majoritarian nationalism was rising aggressively across India. He defended federalism. He consistently articulated Tamil identity without slipping into separatist rhetoric. During NEET protests, language debates, governor-state confrontations and questions of social justice, Stalin gave ideological direction to the Dravidian discourse.

That political foundation has not disappeared because of one electoral defeat.

What collapsed this time was electoral arithmetic. In a multiparty democracy, perception often defeats ideology. Celebrity appeal overtakes organisational depth. Anger accumulates silently against incumbents. Welfare fatigue sets in. Internal contradictions within ruling families create resentment. Every dominant party eventually faces this cycle.

[Stanly Johny @johnstanly]

Why did #Vijay win? The easy answer is that Tamil voters were captivated by his film persona. What is harder is to understand the objective conditions that led to his rise. Cinema remains a powerful force in Tamil politics—there is no doubt about that. But look at what happened to Rajini, who announced his political entry and then immediately took a U-turn. Rajini, who was the biggest star in TN, never articulated his political framework. Vijayakanth formed a party in the Dravidian spectrum and made an impact, but eventually faded. AS for Kamal, the primary beneficiary of his political entry was Kamal himself. Even though Vijay formed his political party only in 2024, he had been preparing the ground for for years--not just through his movies but also by building a network of supporters and social welfare activities.

He carefully positioned himself within Tamil identity politics, casting himself as a critic of both mainstream fronts. In 2019, during final phase of the Sri Lankan civil war, when Tamil were being butchered by the army, he observed a fast in Chennai in solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils. He supported the protest against the ban of Jallikkattu, opposed NEET and the three-language formula. In 2018, he visited the families of those killed by police in Thoothukudi during the anti-Sterlite protests (which was really a dark chapter of the AIADMK government). After he formed the #TVK, he called the #DMK its political rival and the BJP ideological rival. None of this offers a solid ideological commitment. But this provides a framework — Tamil identity politics, social justice message, anti-corruption crusade and a new contract, particularly for the youth — which, along with his star power (he is the biggest star in TN) made him especially appealing to the public. But that's not everything.

TN politics was also in a transformational phase, after Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa, who dominated the state for decades, departed. DMK managed the transition well with #Stalin taking the reins of the party and leading it to victory in 2021, whereas the AIADK fell into disarray. Edappadi eventually emerged as the leader of the party, but the split between him and OPS, and the split of Dhinakaran and then the continued presence of Sasikala all weakened the party. The AIADMK's decline left a vacuum in the state, which was what the BJP tried to fill. Many here say the BJP, which won just one seat, was effectively running the AIADMK alliance. Vijay seemed to have exploited both the decline of the AIADMK and the anti-incumbency sentiments towards the DMK (there is genuine anger towards corruption and the family rule) with his populist, anti-establishment message. Actually the space the BJP wants to occupy is gone. I think the DMK will stay and fight back, the AIADMK will have to fight for survival.

This doesn't mean Vijay is going to be a saviour. The party is not constituted with clear ideological moorings. He remains a larger-than-life figure, a cult, something that’s not good for a healthy democracy. He is politically and administratively inexperienced, and it’s unclear what checks and balances will operate around him. It also remains to be seen whether he will give substantive shape to the political framework he has articulated, or evolve into a political shape-shifter.

[Blank @parotta_kuruma]

The Sanitary workers issue was one bad experience that happened during the DMK regime , every one would agree to it. The main guy who handled that so badly was Sekar babu. Imagine dmk losing but Sekar babu is still winning. Imagine stalin losing and his son winning. This is all a mess that I never expected.

[wazim durden☭ @thallumaalaka]

i say this as a communist but the communist party truly will breathe its last breath unless it commits to the ideology and stops playing electoral power games. ballot victories come after ideological ones. what have we done to radicalise the youth against neoliberalism? zilch.

[. @MA_Dhavan]

ഗോവിന്ദൻ മാഷ് പാർട്ടി സെക്രട്ടറി സ്ഥാനം ഒഴിയണം. പിണറായി പ്രതിപക്ഷ നേതാവാകാനും പാടില്ല. അത്രയെങ്കിലും നടപടികൾ പാർട്ടിയിൽ ഉണ്ടാകണം

[Siddarth K.M. (சித்தார்த் கோ.மு.) @Sidzepp]

Why are Tamil Nadu’s campuses without union elections?

Replugging the piece I wrote in January.

https://t.co/BKHAoMJMcT

[Vishnu Dath @shnudutt]

I can't be a witness to en nenjil kudiyirikkum nanba nanbi from St George Fort. TN people what have you done

[Vishnu Dath @shnudutt]

TVK??? Seriously??????

[Vishnu Dath @shnudutt]

Fahad's character in #Patriot was actually written for Robin Radhakrishnan. Because of his political commitments to the people of Kundara, Fahad had to replace Robin

[Vishnu Dath @shnudutt]

@vapachidelegacy പെട്ടെന്ന് ചത്തത് നന്നായി. Only good thing fafa did in that film