Facing his worst political and personal crisis after a fallout with his son Anbumani, PMK founder S Ramadoss bemoaned late last Dec, “I didn’t bring my son up well.” It was as much a wail in self-pity as a barb at Anbumani, who had virtually taken over the party. On the personal front, it’s difficult to agree with Ramadoss, as Anbumani, a medical graduate like his father, is intelligent, articulate and well-groomed. On the political side, however, Ramadoss may have much to blame himself – for the bringing up of his party and his successor.

Ramadoss is 86, his son 57, their party 37. PMK was a political progression of Vanniyar Sangam that Ramadoss started in 1980 as a coalition of vanniyar groups. Vanniyar Sangham’s high – or low, depending on how you look at it – point was the violent 1987 agitation for reservation for the community. It made the political transformation into PMK in 1989 when the M Karunanidhi govt granted MBC status to vanniyars. Since then, the party had frequently vaulted across alliances with no ideological pretensions. The result was an image of an unpredictable, even unreliable, ally that PMK has been unable to shake off.

If Ramadoss is looking for political parenting guidance, he may look at the life and times of another patriarch – M Karunanidhi. The late DMK leader had a much bigger family and hence a much bigger challenge when it comes to choosing his successor. Karunanidhi also lacked another advantage Ramadoss had – being the founder of his party. Succeeding C N Annadurai in 1969 superseding some seniors, Karunanidhi quickly rose to a position of unimpeachable leadership.

MGR, who questioned him, was shown the door. Even when power slipped away from his hand and MGR remained chief minister from 1977 to 1987, Karunanidhi never loosened his grip over the party.

His succession plan was one of trial, error and triumph. In the early 1970s, Karunanidhi launched his eldest son, M K Muthu, then considered his political heir, into movies, as a counter to MGR. When Muthu flopped, M K Stalin’s grooming began. Stalin was schooled in political gradualism, which in the long run blunted, if not broke, his opponent’s allegations of nepotism. When another son, M K Alagiri, made his ambitions clear in the 2000s, Karunanidhi gave him enough opportunities to prove his inefficiency before showing his quiet place in Madurai.

And Stalin continued his rise to the top while the young daughter Kanimozhi remained contend with the role of an MP and the party’s emissary in Delhi, a role earlier played with elan by Murasoli Maran, who Karunanidhi considered more like a brother than a nephew. Karunanidhi also calibrated the political climb of his grandnephew Dayanidhi Maran, especially after a rift between the families in 2007.

It’s too late for Ramadoss to undo the damage his party has suffered, but it would be in the interests of the people PMK had stood for, if the father and son find blood to be slightly thicker than the wine of power.
It is on this premise that Anbumani, the son, started rising in the party. When founding the party, Ramadoss had famously said none from his family would enter politics. A few years later, when Anbumani made his political foray, it was more in defence than in defiance of his father that Anbumani said he had the right to choose his path.

The junior also broke another tradition in May 2022 by getting himself elected as PMK president, a post Ramadoss never held till last Dec when the feud reached its peak. We don’t know much about the private battles inside the PMK first family. But the fallout shows PMK, as an organization which could not evolve beyond its community appeal to become a political force with a broader perspective, couldn’t absorb the shocks that emanated from within.

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