By G Babu Jayakumar

Copyright deccanchronicle

Jamborees seem to signify the present day politics in Tamil Nadu with the popularity of a leader or a party assessed by using the head count at a gathering as the barometer. In that count, the DMK did not fare badly as it managed to draw a decent crowd for its Muperum Vizha (Three Great Festivals) last week at Karur. As those following politics know, the DMK has been celebrating the Muperum Vizha every year since 1974, which marked the party’s silver jubilee, as a marquee event with crowd turnout varying based on the political realities and requirements of the moment.This year, the event was called in the context of such gatherings gaining a new dimension to Tamil Nadu politics itself. With the DMK on the power saddle, the sole agenda of others, comprising every other political party – other than those in its alliance – and many disparate groups, individuals and the modern day crop of self-styled social media revolutionaries with no professed political affiliation, have been to defeat the ruling party in the 2026 Assembly elections. One fallout of the unique situation was the show of strengths and the political muscle flexing that was unfolding at different places with different contenders to the throne proclaiming or assuming that they were the sole alternatives.So apart from the traditional rival, the AIADMK, embarking on an early campaign with its head honcho Edappadi K Palaniswami boarding a green bus and also crying foul over ambulances cutting through the crowds that had gathered on the roadside to listen to him, the fledgling Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK) has made an earnest bid to make a splash in the murky waters. Since another rival, the BJP does not project itself now as an alternative to the DMK at the hustings though it might be having secret plans of capturing the throne after the elections as it has done on many occasions in other States, the TVK considers itself as a worthy contender.Relying on youth power, or is it a juvenile brigade, the TVK brought back the jamboree culture to the State that once had seen earth-shattering rallies, processions, conferences and massive gatherings. In fact the growth of the DMK since the 1940s or that of the AIADMK in the later years in the 1970s or that of other popular parties like the CPI, CPM, VCK, DMDK and MDMK and can be mainly attributed to the meetings they organized all over the State. They all had leaders and platform speakers endowed with the gift of the gap and could enamour crowds for hours, sometimes late into the nights, with their eloquence.But unlike those days when youth and grown up men and some women acquainted themselves with politics and the ideologies propounded by various parties by listening to their speeches at the public meeting venues or from the confines of their homes through the blaring public address systems, the revival of the jamboree in 2025 has nothing to do with oratory or ideology or even politics. It’s just an arrogant display of strength or a show of human heads that is perceived to be a potent enough weapon to send shivers down the spines of established political parties, particularly the ruling outfit.Since Palaniswamy, too, managed to gather his supporters in large numbers at the points where his green bus stopped for him to ascend a makeshift stage and hit out at the DMK government and question Chief Minister M K Stalin, many supporters of the ruling party started developing doubts. They felt the in-thing in Tamil Nadu politics was to deliver a brief diatribe either from a stage on the roadside or from atop a yellow bus with facilities to reach the roof from inside. They even doubted the potency of conventional spiels – on social justice, state rights, protecting Tamil language and the need to maintain the State’s exclusivity – to appeal to the young voters of the WhatsApp and Reels generation, fed on a regular dose of snappy catchphrases and visual and verbal messages.But the Muperum Vizha at Karur dispelled those doubts. It is a different matter that the DMK did not try the traditional format of its old fashioned conclaves of the past that may go on for two or three days with a variety of sessions discussing a wide range of subjects for the latest Muperum Vizha. But it did succeed in luring youth, which naysayers earlier felt have migrated en masse to the TVK, to Karur and prove that its youth wing and student wing members were not brats enjoying childish pranks as one from the TVK became popular after a video of his dancing endearment with a senior television journalist went viral.Though the avowed purpose of the Muperum Vizha, when its celebrations were started by M Karunanidhi in 1974, was to ensure the next generation acquainted itself with the history, principles and sacrifices of the party and started giving away awards in honour of its past leaders in 1985, it served three additional contemporary purposes in 2025. One, to assert that the party has not lost its relevance to the youth, who turned up in…