Veerappan fan, Periyar baiter wants toddy as national drink

CHENNAI: S Seeman, head of the Naam Thamizhar Party that's contesting all 234 TN seats, speaks harshly of Dravidian icon Periyar E V Ramasamy Naicker and admires forest brigand Veerappan. Velupillai Prabhakaran is his hero and Seeman has modelled his organisation after the LTTE's.

His manifesto says if voted to office, farmers and shepherds will be made government employees and toddy the national drink. A film director-turned politician, Seeman condemns Dravidian parties for ostracising Brahmins -Tamils to him -from the state's political space. On Periyar, his take is blunt: "He was a non-Tamil". On an overdrive to pulverize all `non-Tamil' symbols in TN, Seeman, has appropriated Lord Muruga to defuse the Vinayaga cult promoted by the BJP, which he says is alien to the state.

For this radical, Madurai's 17th century Thirumalai Nayak palace, a fusion of Dravidian and Rajput styles, is a vestige of outsider domination that insults Tamils and deserves to be razed.

Seeman comes from a lower middleclass family, is in touch with grassroots workers, travels, with them, eats and stays with them too. While his inspiration Prabhakaran picked up weapons to achieve his homeland goal, Seeman believes in democratic methods.

He pitches his ap peal to the dominant Vanniyars in parts of northern and western TN -hence his glorification of "Tamil hero" Veerappan. The brigand, to him, is a protector of forests.Seeman promises to build a memorial for the bandit.

His political strategy is quirky. He has fielded dalits in general constituencies where they're a minority, and Vanniyars, Mudaliars, Thevars and Pillais where they aren't the dominant caste. He connects with politically deprived communi ties which were once powerful. His Mylapore nominee is a Brahmin. "Seeman calls it re-engineering Tamil unity.He identifies minorities in constituencies and garners their support when major parties eye majority community votes," says analyst Raveenthiran Doraisamy .

The average age of his supporters is 25. Of late, his meetings have been attracting 1,500-2,000 people, an improvement over 200-300 who used to turn up earlier. He addresses eight meetings a day and every rally generates Rs 20,000-40,000 for the party through collections ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000. The Tamil diaspora across the globe liberally donates to the party.