Trivia of Tamil Nadu politics

Perhaps the best phrase to describe Tamil politics is ' Caste, Cine Stars and Cut Outs'. ( the title of the book by Vaasanthi of India Today). Sycophancy is so ingrained in the system that nothing is true in TN politics as it appears. (Height of flowery language: an MDMK rebel cited Karunanathi as the 'light house' guiding the political cast aways like him, in a Madras port centenary function )
The greedy and ulterior motives of the leaders(parties jumping from one alliance bandwagon to the other, puppet chief ministers, self-immolations, uniform Dravidian Ideology) in overt public display, has greatly demoralised the Tamil intelligensia. This sordid state of affairs has led to the elite classes relegating the Tamil politics to the racist stereoytypes.
In spite of the perils that plagues the system, the romance of the Congress-Dravidian era rule cannot be ignored. To experience the romanticism of Tamil politics , I suggest folks to refer two things,
[1] Watch the movie Iruvar (by mani Rathnam)
[2] Read the book by Vaasanthi as mentioned previously.
It is rather intriguing to note that many key players of TN politics are not born Tamils. So I have decided to write a series of articles on TN politics. We start off, with a trivia on leaders of TN( rather the thalaivars of TN)

The Trivia:

• Which Sri Lankan born Malayalee became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu?

Its MGR or Marudhur Gopalamenon Ramachandran. Marudhur being a village near Jaffna in Sri Lanka.

• Who was the Chief minister of TN at the time of Independence?

Its an obscure figure. O M Ramasamy Reddiar( a Telugu speaking CM) Note: TN was then encompassed in the Presidency of Madras, which covered the four states of south India)

• Who is the first lady CM of TN?

No it is not Jayalalitha. Rather it was the widow of MGR, Mrs. Janaki Ramachandran. ( who served for about six months, before being toppled by Jayalalitha )

• Who wrote a letter to Mohammed Jinnah seeking his support for a seperatist state of Dravida Nadu?

It is none other than our very own Periyar ( E V Ramasamy Naiker- a Kannada speaking Tamil from Erode). As to the proposal Jinnah politely replied that the issue was of least botheration to him.

• Which CM Of Madras Presidency, was also once the Governor General of India and Governor of Bengal Province?

C Rajagopalachari. ( Gopal Krishna Gandhi, the present Governor of West Bengal is the grand son of Rajagoplachari and the Gandhi family ( not the popular Nehru-Gandhi, rather the Mahatma Gandhi family).

To be continued........