When results of the May 2004 general elections came, it was clear that a considerable number of ministers would be from Tamil Nadu.
CHENNAI: When results of the May 2004 general elections came, it was clear that a considerable number of ministers would be from Tamil Nadu. Those who expected a dhoti-clad clan occupying the cabinet berths were in for a surprise as two of the most powerful ministers from the southern state - both in their thirties - came to take charge in formal suits.
One, information technology minister Dayanidhi Maran, fell midway owing to a family feud. The other, health minister Anbumani Ramadoss, has not just survived, but is kicking furiously.
It took a while for Delhi to realise that inside the black blazer was a man, now 40 years of age, wedded to morality and tradition that often comes into conflict with modern lifestyle.
Ramadoss' sermon to BPO employees, who the minister felt was "a group of youngsters who smoke, drink and work late nights, thus endangering their health", had Nasscom president Kiran Karnik protesting. And that was not the first time the young mascot of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in Delhi was sounding geriatric.
An MBBS from the Madras Medical College, Ramadoss began his saga of controversies, putting the political scalpel into the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) administration, dismissing its director Dr P Venugopal in July 2006 on charges of discriminating against scheduled castes. Court cases, fasts, boycotts and media criticism did not deter the minister from turning the knife in the AIIMS wound.
Having resolved to eliminate tobacco products from the country, the minister first toyed with a ban and then with putting pictures and messages on cigarette packs and other tobacco products. Then came the tussle with medicos, as he announced his intention to make rural posting mandatory for fresh medical graduates.
None of the proposals are politically incorrect, but Ramadoss just does not know how to announce and implement them with a semblance of political correctness. The reason could be in his political upbringing. Not many outside Tamil Nadu know about his father, who founded the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) in 1989 after graduating as the leader of the Vanniyar Sangham.
His father lives in a sprawling rural estate in Thailapuram near Pondicherry, where budding politicians are given lessons on the importance of environmental conservation, (some joke the trees in the estate are symbols of apology for Vanniyar Sangham activists cuttingdown hundreds of trees during a reservation struggle in 1987), ill-effects of alcohol and tobacco, and, not so formally, realpolitik.
Son Ramadoss was tutored for the Delhi post first as the president of Pasumai Thayagam, an environment protection group his father presided over. He grew up seeing his father revered by the Vanniyar community, which has a big presence in the northern districts of Tamil Nadu.
Subservience was the hallmark of his father's followers, who were at awe with doctor ayya, probably the first person from the community to graduate from a medical college. The son expects the same, only that the field of play is as diverse as Thailapuram and Delhi.
If the father has no advisors, the son has only his father as an advisor. So, when the father calls for a ban on liquor, the son calls for a ban on night life.
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