From: sundaram@me.uta.edu (Ravi 'Kity Bum' Sundaram)
Subject: The EGO MANIA of TN celebrities
Organization: none
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 16:41:19 GMT


ABSTRACT
	The active subversion of the second line of
	an organisation by its own leader creates a
	leadership vaccum, succession fights and abject
	flattery. This weakens all the TN institutions. Perpetrators 
	in politics, films and journalism are mentioned.
	EVR, karuNaanidhi, jayalalithaa,
	cho, es vee sEkar, kamal, rajini, baarathiraajaa,
	iLaya raajaa and vairamuththu are called EGO maniacs.
	The clear line succession named by the kaanchi matt
	applauded.
	

*****************************************************************
	NOTICE and DISCLAIMERS.

	In this post I do not agree or disagree with the
	position or views taken by the persons mentioned.
	All I am trying to do is to point out how the
	activities of these persons are detrimental to their
	own organisations and followers.
	
	All views are mine.

	As I am going home for a month, please email
	your comments. I'll be back by Jan 21
*****************************************************************

Intro:
	TN leaders in all fields develop a feeling of self-importance
	and ego. One would expect enormous self confidence in their
	own leadership and expect them to take under their wings many
	people of high stature without worrying whether they will be
	overshadowed. But paradoxically they subvert their own subordinates,
	weakening their organisation. Let us see some specific examples.

EVR	E V Ramaswamy (All persons will be mentioned by the name withou any
	titles or adaimozhi) started rational movement and Dravita Kazhagam.
	He remained numero uno of his organisation. Problem is who was
	the numero deux? May be men of higher visibility like aNNaa thurai,
	M G Ramachandran etc left him. But still he did not have a well
	established second and third ranks. At his demise DK saw unseemly
	succecession fights with (you guessed it) Mrs Ramasway among
	the contenders for the torch. He had an army of faithful but he
	left them a void. The participants of typical mud slinging TN
	politics mutually agreed that EVR is not to be muddied.
	Without serious threat to his leadership he could have developed
	his party very strong second string of leaders, but he left DK
	to the likes of ki veeramaNi.

aNNaa	aNNaa thurai's reign was  short and he was ill. He seems to be
	the only one who tolerated non-zeros in his immediate circles.
	I don't know enough of the succession trouble in DMK (if it existed)

karuNaanidhi
	karuNaanidhi has actively decimated more of his allies than enemies.
	MGR left. But those who stayed behind had to owe personal allegiance
	to karuNaanidhi than to the party. DMK had the best cadre of workers
	among the TN parties and were very much dedicated and his leadership
	was never threatened after MGR left. But he would not trust anyone
	other than his relatives. maaran, muthu (long bcak), staalin ...

MGR	MGR.. the whole party was due to his personal charismaa.
	With his charisma and unquestioned popularity he could have
	done much better. But became paranoid of central govt DMK nexus,
	would not tolerate any one getting any more popular. The
	succession battle after his death was an insult to all Tamils.

jayaa	jayalalithaa, continues the proud dravidian tradition of
	surrounding oneself with groveling idiots and being very much
	satified about, nay proud of, it.
	
CHO	This phenomenan is not restricted to politics alone. Even
	the much celebrated journalist cho is guilty of the same
	conduct in this respect. Who is number 2 in tuglak?
	cho once had the largest selling fortnightly in India before
	(being overtaken by a filmi one from Bombay). Even now his
	circulation figures are impressive. People of all parties
	read his mag to clarify the issues. But he enjoys the role of
	"lone crusader working hopelessly against the odds". Would he
	not establish a proud journalistic tradition that would carry
	his torch after him?

M	Movies: If there is a concentration of ego maniacs anywhere
O	it is at the TN "pada ulagu". Every hero interferes with
V	all aspects of film making. Script writing, casting, costumes,
I	screen play nothing is beyond their purview. Even music.
E
S	kamal, rajini, sivaaji, satyaraaj, baakkiyaraaj all produce
	atrocious movies when their ego got better of them. When
	kamal and sivaaji confined themselves to acting and left all
	other departments in competant hands they produced glorious
	movies. (mudhal mariyaadai, naayakan, kamal's great telugu movies,
	the paa series by sivaaji)

More	The successful trio baarathiraajaa, iLayaraajaa vayira muththu
Movies	broke up because they all had egos in vishwaroopam. Even minor
	figures like  S V Sekar are not an exception. When his TV serial
	vaNNa kOlaNGaL became popular he and the leading lady (kutti
	padmini?) had a tiff over "who is responsible for the success".
	He broke up with Crazy Mohan and the musicians of his drama
	troop gObu-baabu.

	I am sure this is true for most of  the other fields and
	may even be a part of general malice that afflicts the
	entire Indian subcontinent.


kaanchi matt:
	In my memory only the kaanchi matt has clearly defined the
	line of succesion for the next two generations. sankaraachaariyaa's
	(sorry if I offend someone by mentioning Him among the others
	mentioned here. Regret having to  drop  the His Holiness Sri)
	faith in his beliefs, the trust he has in his other aachaaryaas,
	his humilty and his greatness make me wonder how this oasis
	come to exist in the desert of despotism, nepotism and tyranny
	that hold TN in a deathly embrace.
	
Ravi Sundaram
pizhai poruththaruLveer
vaasaka dOsham kshantavyaha
________________________________________________________________________
I have tried my best not to offend anyone's beliefs. I have condemned
only the rule of despotism, tyranny and ego mania of the leaders NOT
their political philosophy, views, their ideology or their competance.

Any personal flame calling me names will be ignored.
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Xref: sparky soc.culture.tamil:4523 soc.culture.indian:41490