When Udhayanidhi Stalin doubles down on his perceived anti-Hindu rhetoric, there clearly is greater than meets the attention.
Tamil Nadu is not any totally different from the remainder of the nation by way of the spiritual break-up of its inhabitants. Nearly all of the voters within the state are Hindu.
So why did an announcement by the state’s minister of Youth Welfare and Sports activities Growth about desirous to ”destroy Sanatan Dharma” trigger a furore exterior Tamil Nadu however barely a flutter inside?
Why did Stalin Junior, son of Chief Minister MK Stalin and inheritor to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) throne, comply with it up with one other assertion – that he’s in opposition to a temple being constructed on a destroyed mosque?
Why did the Tamil Nadu Hindu Non secular and Charitable Endowments division and the police refuse the livestreaming of the Ram Temple consecration and singing of bhajans with aplomb, citing oral orders?
The reply to those questions is similar. The Tamil Hindu voter units apart spiritual rhetoric earlier than deciding whom they’ll vote. What does make a distinction is caste delight and appeasement, and the federal government’s supply on important providers and guarantees, and, to some extent, how effectively the voter is bribed.
The Tamil voter is aware of that the DMK candidates will flock to native temples forward of elections – they’re anticipated to donate generously to those native temples and make the thiruvizha or pageant a grand success. When not in an election yr, the sitting MLA is anticipated to satisfy this obligation every year.
The Tamil voter additionally is aware of that the DMK is large on rhetoric, typically filmy and emotional. Over 60 years of watching propaganda movies, of watching the DMK water down its ideology to be extra interesting to the lots, of cult leaders and wannabe cult leaders, and the Tamil voter is aware of.
Certain, there are some children who swear by atheism and rationalism however the state will not be vastly totally different from its northern or western counterparts. Tamil Nadu is as profoundly religious as Gujarat or Maharashtra or West Bengal.
The Tamil voter is aware of that the politics of the DMK, nonetheless trendy and visionary it could sound, is rooted in caste, and that the get together is not going to upset the prevailing caste hierarchy for any motive. This was the case for the reason that days of former Chief Minister C Annadurai. When within the 1968 Kilvenmani bloodbath, 44 Dalits have been killed by higher caste Hindus, Annadurai, who was Chief Minister, maintained a stoic silence and the perpetrators have been virtually allowed to flee regulation. Not a lot has modified since then. A yr after criminals blended human faeces within the consuming water tank of Dalits in Vengaivayal, they’re but to be punished. Catch Udhayanidhi Stalin or some other DMK chief utter a phrase about caste points – they will kiss their political profession goodbye in the event that they did.
The Tamil voter is conscious that the DMK has constructed an enormous propaganda machine over the previous 60 years within the state. That the DMK has a chokehold on the Tamil movie business and the cable business is well-known. It’s also identified that the DMK has its personal males as editors in most Tamil language tv, print and digital media.
Maybe this data spurs the common voter in Tamil Nadu to low cost all bluster and keenly deal with what they get out of the vote.
For some, it’s cash in hand. For some others, it’s a means of punishing an errant MLA or MP. For but others, it’s the data {that a} politician will likely be a part of their lives, in weddings, in numerous capabilities, and in loss of life.
About 30 % of the voters votes just for the image. This quantity will scale back within the coming years, as chilly logic will more and more dictate whom to vote.
It is because of this that ministers within the DMK cupboard are in a position to make blatantly disparaging remarks about Hindus whereas appeasing members of different religions.
All this rhetoric is solely noise to attempt to divert public consideration from anger over floods, the dearth of jobs and the rising challenges confronted by Tamils.
The DMK are masters of spin.
(Sandhya Ravishankar is a journalist)
Disclaimer: These are the private opinions of the writer.