580. The Saboteur

Muthuswamy stopped Mukilan, who was about to fall at his feet.

"These practices would be considered appropriate in the political party you earlier belonged to, not in ours!" said Muthuswamy, smiling.

For a moment, Mukilan wondered whether Muthuswamy was subtly pointing out that Mukilan had defected from another political party. 

But, he immediately told himself that Muthuswamy was not a person, who would resort to such jibe. He would have made that remark casually.

"I am contesting from this constituency, as per the desire of our leader. I wanted to get your blessings first" said Mukilan.

"You will always have my blessings. I will campaign for you and work for your win. Start your election work immediately" said Muthuswamy.

Mukilan bowed to Muthuswamy and took leave of him.

Nathan, a long time supporter of Muthuswamy in the party, who had been sitting in the room and watching the scene, told Muthuswamy, "Sir! The party leadership has been unjust to you. Many in our party, including me, were anticipating that you would contest the election from this constituency and become a minister, after winning the election. The media had also been carrying reports to this effect. But our leader chose to give the ticket to this chameleon, who had joined our party only recently!" in a tone of indignation. 

"Our leader knows what is good for the party. He also knows that I don't crave for any position."

"Don't campaign for Mukilan, sir. He doesn't deserve your support."

"Why do you say so?"

"I got this information from a source in our party headquarters. Originally, our leader had intended to give the ticket to you. Mukilan misrepresented to our leader that if you contested from this constituency, people belonging to certain castes won't vote for you, and that it would result in our party losing the seat and persuaded the leader to give him the ticket, claiming that belonging to a particular caste gave Mukilan an advantage."

"Your information is correct!"

"You know about this already!" exclaimed Nathan.

"Some of my friends in the media sounded me on this. Even before the party formally announced the candidature of Mukilan, I had been anticipating this development.

"You could have talked to the leader and got the ticket for you."

"You know pretty well that I don't seek any favour for myself from the party. If the party or our leader gave me a position or responsibility, I would accept it. That has been my outlook."

"This is not fair. That man had the temerity to ask for your blessing and support, after cunningly snatching the opportunity from you. This is adding insult to injury. But, you blessed him and offered to canvass votes for him! You command the support of all sections of people in this constituency. But, for getting the ticket for himself, Mukilan presented a false picture to our leader that you won't get the support of certain caste groups, in our constituency. Why should you campaign for a person, who sabotaged you? If you refrain from campaigning for him, people will understand that he doesn't have your blessings and decide not to vote for him. Only when he loses the election, he will learn the bitter lesson that he can't succeed through sabotage and mend his ways. Our leader will also realize his folly" said Nathan.

"No, Nathan. I offered to campaign for him, only after knowing that he had grabbed the opportunity from me, through sabotage. He acted as per his nature. I will act as per my nature" said Muthuswamy, placidly.

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 58

Compassion

Verse 58 (in Tamil):

peyak kaNdum nanjuNdu amaivar nayath thakka
nAgarigam vENdubavar.

Meaning:

Those who desire to cultivate the loveable trait of urbanity will, even after seeing poison being poured, consume it and remain placid.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'paRi pOna vAyppu' by the same author.) 

Verse 581 (Soon)
Verse 579