Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin doesn’t hug just anyone. But then, AG Perarivalan is not just anyone. Hours after the Supreme Court ordered his release on Wednesday morning, the 50-year-old who spent 31 years in prison after being convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, travelled 200km to meet Stalin. The handshake, almost naturally, gave way to a hug.
Stalin called him ‘brother’. Perarivalan’s mother Arputhammal, who waged a three-decade battle to get her son back, looked on with moist eyes. For the family, it was an emotional closure. For Stalin, it was a political statement.
It was Perarivalan’s first stop in his thanksgiving pilgrimage where Stalin, by today’s protocol, is the prime political deity in Tamil Nadu. The free man then paid obeisance to former AIADMK chief ministers Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam. Next in line were PMK founder S Ramadoss, MDMK leader Vaiko and VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan.
But why are politicians eagerly waiting for this visitor? For one, the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case – and more so Perarivalan’s struggle for freedom – has been a constant catalyst in Tamil Nadu politics and the state-Centre relationship for three decades.
If politics is the art of the impossible, irony is the paintbrush. So, Perarivalan’s release has come as a political shot in the arm for DMK 25 years after the Justice MC Jain Commission report implicated the party and its leader M Karunanidhi for abetting Rajiv’s killers and LTTE at large.
This story is from the May 20, 2022 edition of The Times of India.
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This story is from the May 20, 2022 edition of The Times of India.
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