Saturday, September 20, 2008
praja rajyam
With the announcement of his party's name, Telugu cine star Chiranjeevi has made his political debut. However, his success will depend largely on his ability to usher in the change that he has promised in his speech.
AFTER KEEPING the people of Andhra Pradesh (AP) in suspense for a while, Telugu idol Megastar Chiranjeevi has finally announced his party’s name – ’Prajarajyam’. In a mammoth rally held in the temple-town of Tirupati on August 26, to formally launch his party, Chiranjeevi, after a dramatic onstage countdown, announced the name of his party and later unfurled his party’s flag, designed in white and green with a dark red sun superimposed on the white section. This follows his address to the press on August 17, when he formally declared his intention to join politics.
Cheered on by an estimated 10-lakh crowd, comprising largely of his fans and well-wishers, Chiranjeevi declared in an emotion-choked voice what he is in politics to serve the people. In a speech that would have made any seasoned politician proud, Chiranjeevi gave all the politically-correct sound bytes, ranging from "Youth power is my power" to "My party is of the people, for the people and by the people" to "My pulse beats for the Telugu’s." While he made it amply clear that social justice is his party’s main agenda, with the emphasis on the welfare of farmers and working classes, there were also bold references to the highly sensitive issue of separate statehood for the Telangana region.
While it cannot be denied that the massive crowd that had gathered to witness their favourite star’s political debut and the notable performance of Chiranjeevi in his first public act as a political leader were impressive by any standard, one has to wait and see whether the hype and the fan-following will get translated into votes.
Cine stars starting political parties is not something new to AP. Earlier, N T Rama Rao (NTR) who founded the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), rode successfully to power on popular support and goodwill, thanks largely to the divine and goody-goody roles that he had essayed in Telugu movies. Though, after NTR, many Telugu cine actors like Mohan Babu and Vijayashanti entered politics, they chose to join established political parties and not to start one on their own.
However, examples abound in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu. Seeing the political success of the cine star-turned-politician MG Ramachandran (MGR), the founder of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), many Tamil movie stars, like K Bhagyaraj and Vijaya T Rajender, floated political parties after a few movie hits, only to realise that not everyone can be an MGR.
Others like Vijayakant and Sarat Kumar, who have political parties of their own, have proved to be damp squibs so far. Perhaps, that’s why Tamil Superstar Rajinikant has studiously avoided testing the political waters of Tamil Nadu.
All that aside, Chiranjeevi’s political fortunes will depend chiefly on his ability to fire the imagination of the people of AP about the ’change’ that he has promised to usher in. In other words, if Chiranjeevi could not do an NTR, at least he should try to do an Obama at the AP level. In other words, Chiranjeevi’s screen popularity and community tag (he belongs to the influential Kapu community) will be of no use, if he ultimately proves to be another chip off the old political block.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
