For a state whose politics is dominated by regional issues, Tamil Nadu plays an extraordinarily crucial role in national elections. Its voters are typically decisive, delivering most of its 39 MP seats en bloc to either the DMK- or the AIADMK-led coalition. And the winning party, freed from national aspirations, has immense room to create an arrangement with the ruling coalition at the Centre. In coalitions since the mid-’90s, Tamil Nadu has mattered.

With Lok Sabha polls imminent, street politics in Tamil Nadu is

especially charged by the Sri Lankan army’s spectacular gains over the LTTE. These gains have come at a cost: the fate of over 150,000 Tamil refugees remains uncertain; and the United Nations warns of a humanitarian crisis.

Developments in the island nation have often ignited street politics in Tamil Nadu, and if sobriety is not regained by the state’s politicians, matters can get messy and complicated — for local governance and for India’s foreign policy consensus on the need for a political solution in Sri Lanka. Apart from all-party vigils and inflamed rhetoric, shops have been closed, students and lawyers have gone on strike, and a student burnt himself to death in protest. Political parties have even put public pressure on the Centre to halt the Sri Lankan military advance. The incidents of arson in the Madras High Court are instructive. There is no denying the need for the lawyers to be dealt with firmly. But incidents such as these occur in an emotive climate created by Tamil Nadu’s political parties.

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