Political revenge drama: stranger than fiction?
The real-life revenge-horror saga playing out right now in Tamil Nadu is sure to put even the best movie script-writers to shame. Picture the below storyline: a 2-minutes recap of the past 200-days. Not to worry in case you don’t have this regional context, you can still enjoy the political thriller.
A leader dies
A popular leader is taken ill, just after winning the public elections and being re-annointed in the high chair. Months of drama unfold in the hospital Emergency Care, with claims of she being held hostage and shut out from the outside world. After months of eerie suspense, the leader is declared dead in mysterious circumstances. Conspiracy theories point fingers to a close aide and her clan.
Aide attempts to take over
The dead leader’s aide moves in for the kill, and her all-powerful regional clan takes over the political party. The succession looks clinical. The aide is projected as the supreme successor, and the entire party is forced to fall in line, or face consequences. Power is usurped and an entire state is brought to its knees.
The rebellion.. or resurrection?
Meanwhile, the dead authoritarian leader continues to enjoy limelight into the after-life, with a lot of drama unfolding at her grave. Massive public protests unfurl at the site. Ministers queue up to meditate at her grave, and go on record claiming to have spoken to the leader’s spirit! What better ally than a ghost in the mood for revenge? So, an overnight rebellion flares up.
Slowly, an invisible hand seems to take up a more spirited, active role in the state’s matters and a string of unbelivable events unfold. The perfect revenge potboiler plays out.
The aide who is well on the way to the high chair is stopped in the tracks, just before the crown is placed on her head. All of a sudden, the courts find her guilty in a 20-year old case, declare her ineligible for the high post and pack her off to prison, in double-quick time. Justice delivered in the nick of time?
Nephew’s shot at glory..
The aide entrusts her nephew to head the clan, hence the party and the state’s mantle falls onto him. He firmly takes up the reins, demonstrates complete authority and wins the trust vote. Grand plans are made for his ascension to the throne. Time for an interesting flash-back: viewers are reminded that the now-dead leader had banished this same nephew from the party, many many years ago. So, you get a sense of the new target.
When everything seems to be going the nephew’s way, the faction loses right to use the party symbol. The all-critical by-election which would have given public credibility and cemented the nephew’s place in the state is cancelled, with just days left to polling. And the rebellion continues to grow, with more party representatives ‘awakened’ and once-hard-line supporters doing a volte-face against the clan.
..and the big fall
In a continuing strange turn of events, there is a bolt out of the blue, and the nephew is accused in a bribing scandal. The central law enforcement agencies close in for the kill. In another instance of justice being served quicker than fast-food, he gets arrested, effectively decimating the clan and its stronghold on the party.
The Invisible hand?
As the popular movie phrase goes ‘picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost..’, which translates to ‘the movie is not over yet, my friend..!’ All questions are now on the invisible hand that’s shaping it all. As many party loyalists and movie fanatics would like to believe, is it the dead leader’s spirit baying for blood, and executing the perfect revenge plot? Or, is this a behind-the-screens work of someone influential at the Centre, with a larger scheme in mind?
The answer is anyone’s guess. But, would you have believed the plausibility of this story line, even a year back? Perhaps more suspense and twists are in store for us, in the days ahead.
Reality is indeed stranger than fiction!
