From literary rhetoric to simple people's language

Political leaders in Tamil Nadu are using rhetoric and quotes from classical Tamil literature to woo voters in the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Earlier, the fifties and sixties were dominated by literary Tamil, although everyday life illustrations were cited by the Dravidian movement’s speakers.

Salem: With the absence of leaders like former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and his colleagues in the election campaign, the present day political leaders are using simple language, besides illustrations from everyday life to connect with people in total contrast to the days of using chaste Tamil with similes, rhetoric and quotes from classical Tamil literature.

In the 2016 Assembly polls even before the actual campaign started DMK chief M. Karunanidhi began with his famous "fruit will fall in milk" example, which was much debated in political circles. Later, party’s principal secretary K. Duraimurugan came out with the 'cherry in ice-cream' quote to stress that DMK without Vijayakanth alliance could be successful.

The fifties and sixties were dominated by literary Tamil, although everyday life illustrations were cited by the Dravidian movement’s speakers. However, simple common illustrations were handy for the DMK after AIADMK captured power with large support of women voters.

The DMK chief began addressing the women voters with simple daily life examples to drive home his political point. In 1980, he explained his alliance with Congress by an example of a pot. “In 1977, Congress was a hot pot. Now, it is cool. But, Janata Party is a broken pot”. He was referring to the clash between the DMK and Congress in 1977 and the split in Janata Party in 1980.

Another example was the ladle with black gram. It goes as follows. Two women with ladles, one empty and the other with black grams in the ladle are fighting. While the woman with empty ladle could turn it at all possible directions, the woman with black grams could not do so, for the risk of spilling the black grams.

Explaining the illustration in detail, Karunanidhi used to say, an opposition party is like the woman with an empty ladle and the ruling party has a government to lose. In this election campaign, even MDMK leader Vaiko, known for his fiery and literary oratory is sticking to simple and plain speech.

DMK leader MK Stalin, AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam and joint coordinator Edappadi K Palaniswami are using simple, straight language devoid of punches. Last time, Stalin sung songs to enliven the campaign and former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa used to ask questions to the crowd who used to respond cheerfully. This time, the campaign of AIADMK leaders is usually restricted to monologue with a rare response from the audience who looks mute for most of the time.

Both Stalin and rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran are eliciting a good response from the crowd although their language is simple and straight. But, there are no anecdotes, stories or songs in their campaign, but Dhinakaran has a good sense of humour which keeps the crowd alive.

Dhinakaran, who was given the number two slot of party treasurer by Jayalalithaa before he was banished connects well with the crowd through popular comedy scenes from Tamil films.