Active Stocks
Tue Mar 19 2024 11:41:02
  1. Tata Consultancy Services share price
  2. 4,018.35 -3.05%
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 147.85 -1.17%
  1. Bharti Airtel share price
  2. 1,231.85 0.56%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 260.90 -1.55%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 409.85 -1.81%
Business News/ Opinion / Will Rajinikanth join the BJP?
BackBack

Will Rajinikanth join the BJP?

The answer to this question is out there for those who know where to look

As any Rajinikanth fan will tell you, Thalaiva always answers such questions in his films. Photo: MintPremium
As any Rajinikanth fan will tell you, Thalaiva always answers such questions in his films. Photo: Mint

No, it is not to be found in a hermeneutic analysis of his off-screen pronouncements, nor in parsing the competing claims of the various parties that have been wooing him, nor in a dissection of his limited forays onto the terrain of Tamil Nadu politics in the past.

As any Rajinikanth fan will tell you, Thalaiva always answers such questions in his films. The answer is typically expressed in a one-liner, or what has come to be known as punch dialogue. So all you need to do is watch his latest film. It’s called Lingaa. It is not released yet. But if you’re in a hurry, you don’t have to wait. The trailer has Rajini’s reply to the question on the lips of everyone intrigued by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s pursuit of the superstar. In crude English translation, this is it: “I only do what my heart wants me to do."

Simply put, Rajini’s heart does not want him to join politics. It never has. For those who’ve been following Rajini’s work and public life as a fan—and I count myself as one—this has never been in doubt. He has no political ambitions. If he ever did, he has had enough opportunities to fructify them. He would have done it when he was younger, when, presumably, there was greater scope for him to obtain from politics what politicians—or anyone for that matter—seek to obtain from politics.

But the bald truth is that Rajini does not want to get involved, or be dragged into it. And yet, if the most powerful politician in the country feels compelled to travel to Rajini’s residence to meet him, well, that says something. And what it says, in Thalaiva’s idiom, is that Rajini does not need politics, it is politics that needs Rajini.

The BJP, under Amit Shah’s leadership, has perfected the strategy of pre-emptively identifying individuals who wield maximum clout among the electorate, and persuading them to either join the party or endorse it. It doesn’t matter if the individual happens to be a politician from a rival party, or a godman with criminal cases pending against him, or a legendary playback singer, or a film star.

This is hardly a new strategy. Nor is the BJP alone in following it. But today they are more scientific and more persistent about it than anyone else. To take an obvious example, in Haryana, it executed this strategy brilliantly by getting the powerful Jat leader Birender Singh to abandon the Congress and join the BJP.

Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu are due in 2016—the midpoint of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s term at the Centre. The BJP is in a minority in the upper house of Parliament. It will want to make inroads in what is one of the larger state Assemblies—Tamil Nadu accounts for 18 seats in the Rajya Sabha.

But if the BJP wants to either go it alone or dominate any alliance it may enter into—this has been a hallmark of the poll campaigns led by Shah—it needs to operate from a position of strength. However, it hasn’t been able to find a Birender Singh in Tamil Nadu. Therefore, Rajinikanth.

The BJP’s problem is that, unlike the Haryana leader, who is now happily ensconced in Delhi as a cabinet minister, Rajinikanth is not interested in anything the BJP wants to offer him. He does not want to be a minister in Delhi or chief minister of Tamil Nadu. He is already bigger—in whatever sense one wishes to understand the word—than most politicians in Tamil Nadu.

He is big in terms of influence over the electorate, in terms of funds at his disposal, in terms of being a crowd-puller, in terms of the special position he enjoys in the popular political imagination, and here, I am referring to the special position of the kind that has made Tamil Nadu an especially happy hunting ground for actor-turned-politicians, from M.G. Ramachandran to J. Jayalalithaa to Vijayakanth.

For some time now, Rajini has been bigger than what MGR or Jayalalithaa or Vijayakanth were when they entered politics. It is widely accepted, for instance, that his endorsement of the Tamil Maanila Congress-Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) combine played a significant role in their victory in the 1996 Assembly elections. While the superstar himself maintains a public stance of asking his fans to make up their own minds on who to vote for, Rajini fan clubs have been known to function like vote banks, ever ready to execute the political will of their icon.

But ironically, it is because he is so big that politics is not something Rajini can avoid. In many cases, film or television stars do not think too much, or maybe not enough, before they cash in on their popularity by making the transition to politics. Or maybe they think it is a natural extension of their ambition—just a variant of what they do when they cash in on their popularity by endorsing consumer brands. What’s the difference between a soap and a political party anyway? Both are businesses, and make money by selling dreams, don’t they?

But Rajini is not like other stars or brands from the world of entertainment. He doesn’t give interviews to promote his films. He doesn’t endorse any product. According to media reports, he wouldn’t even meet the representative of a cola company that was ready to pay him 2 crore to be its brand ambassador. His fans love him for this—for the fact that he belongs to that rare breed in public life for whom their name, though much in demand, is not necessarily on sale to the highest bidder.

Rajini has money. He has fame. He has power. His identity is that of a larger-than-life cinematic superstar. He has fans in every political party, from the DMK to the BJP to Liberal Democratic Party of Japan. Becoming a politician can only diminish him.

More importantly, joining politics will dilute Brand Rajinikanth. The animating essence of the Rajini brand—the core brand idea, as it were—is that it is a superlative category of its own. This category has only one member: Rajini. No other entity—human or superhuman or supra-human—can get anywhere close to the rarefied realm that Rajini occupies and rules. In such a scenario, being subservient to, say, a party whip is an absurd idea. He has to be nuts to want to enter politics. But Rajini isn’t, and he is intelligent enough to know that he mustn’t.

But right now, he is in a difficult position. It is never a good idea to displease the most powerful politician in the country. Hard as it may be to stomach, no, not even Rajini can afford to do that. So at the moment his priority is to do whatever is necessary to ensure that Lingaa is released without any hiccups, and all those who have invested in the film—invested in HIM, basically—get their returns. This is his area of vulnerability. It is why he is being careful. He does not want to say yes to politics. But he cannot afford to say an outright no.

Given the nature of politics in India, who knows what risks a no might entail, or what circumstance might force him to change his mind and dive into the dangerous and deep pool of politics. So he’s getting by, and buying time, by saying things like he is hesitant, that he will do as God directs, and so on.

The irony is that this is one of those rare situations where it is never going to be enough for Thalaiva to say it once. Even if he says it a hundred times, in many direct and indirect ways—“no, I don’t want to join your party"—people are not ready to listen.

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 21 Nov 2014, 12:56 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App