After the function arranged to celebrate Ezhilmalai's completion of one year as the Chief Minister got over, Rudramurthy, the president of the ruling party, went to the party office.Ezhilmalai went to his office and the other leaders dispersed.
Sitting at his room in the party office, Rudramurthy was deeply immersed in thinking for some time. He then called up Pandian, the former Chief Minister.
"How is your health?" queried Rudramurthy.
"Better. I am recuperating well after the bypass surgery. I have started performing my normal activities" said Pandian.
"I am happy to hear this. I plan to spend this Sunday at my resort in the East Coast Road, with my family. Can you come and meet me there? I don't want anyone to know about our meeting. Please come for lunch along with your wife. Even if someone were to know about our meeting, we can make it look like a family get-together" said Rudramurthy.
After the lunch, Rudramurthy was conversing with Pandian, in the privacy of his room, in the resort.
"When you were the Chief Minister, you gave a good government. But we lost the election, because the people were lured by the false promises made by our rivals. Our rivals, who came to power, performed so badly that we won a landslide victory in the election held last year. Since your health was not good, our party had to choose another person to lead the government and Ezhilmalai was chosen the Chief Minister" said Rudramurthy, by way of laying a background for the discussion.
"Yes. And I hope that things are going well" said Pandian.
"Do you really think so? What is your opinion about Ezhilmalai's government?"
"As far as I know, there are no visible signs of discontent against this government" said Pandian, cautiously.
Rudramurthy laughed and said, "I can appreciate your reluctance to speak about the government run by our own party. But I will be brutally frank. I am not at all satisfied with the performance of Ezhilmalai."
Pandian remained silent.
"I am particularly unhappy about a few issues. First, Ezhilmalai has no concern for the people. As you know, a few months back, there were floods in three districts. The floods had caused extensive damage to the crops raised in these three districts. The farmers suffered huge losses. I asked Ezhilmalai to provide cash relief to the farmers, to mitigate their losses at least to some extent. But he was adamant about not giving any relief to them, citing resources crunch as the reason. But he has allocated a sum of rupees one thousand crore, to construct a new building for housing the secretariat!"
"You could have got a resolution passed by the party, urging the government to provide cash relief to the affected farmers."
"After Ezhilmalai had openly announced the government's inability to pay any compensation to he farmers, passing a resolution by the party would send a signal to the people that the party was at loggerheads with the Chief Minister. That is why I spoke to him personally. But he didn't pay any heed to my words."
"Considering your position as the party president, Ezhilmalai should have given serious consideration to your advice! Discarding your advice amounts to disrespecting you, a senior leader and the party president!" said Pandian.
"I am not concerned about his showing disrespect to me. But I am concerned about his attitude and actions. He doesn't show any respect to his senior colleagues in his cabinet. He treats them as his subordinates. They have complained to me about the shabby treatment they have been receiving from Ezhilmalai."
"Some people have complained to me also!" said Pandian.
"What I am concerned even more is about Ezhilmalai's unsympathetic attitude. He is not just unsympathetic, he is cruel and sadistic too. We all witnessed his cruelty, when he ordered firing on the protesting employees of Rasayan Industries, resulting in the death of ten workers. If this was not cruel enough, he falsely accused the employees of having conspired to blast the factory using a bomb and arrested some of them under provisions of anti-terrorist law, thereby terrorizing the workers and forcing them to surrender to the management. If we were an opposition party, we could say that he crushed the worker's protest in return for the huge sum of money he received from the management. But being the ruling party, how can we say this, though that is the truth?" said Rudramurthy, feeling agitated.
"But that was a few months back. People seem to have forgotten that incident and moved!'
It is true. But is it not a crime to allow a cruel regime to continue in power? Therefore, I have decided to unseat Ezhilmalai. But I couldn't find a suitable person to replace him."
"You should take over the reins. That will be good for the party and for the country" aid Pandian.
"When I launched this party, I made a declaration that I would never hold any office in the government. Till this day, I have been sticking to my word. But our party respects my choice. The party legislators would always elect the person I want them to, as their leader. We are having a meeting of our legislative party in the coming week. In that meeting, I am going to request the legislators to elect a new person to lead the government. Before that meeting, I will ask Ezhilmalai to step down. He has no alternative to doing so."
"You say you won't consent to be the Chief Minister. So, whom are you going to recommend?"
"I am going to ask the legislators to elect you as the Chief Minister. Your health has improved now and you are fit to take up the responsibility" said Rudramurthy, extending his hand to congratulate Pandian.
Thirukkural
Section 2
Materialism
Chapter 44
Condemnation of Faults
Verse 432 (in Tamil):
ivaRalum mAN piRadha mAnamum mANA
uvagaiyum Edham iRaikku.
Meaning:
Not helping the needy, pride devoid of humility, and enjoyment derived from immoral things are the faults, a king should not have.