At the INDIA alliance’s Mumbai meeting, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal said that in the coming few days, there will be “deliberate efforts” to create divides between the Opposition parties.
Just two days later, there was an evident rift in the Opposition alliance over a remark by Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin. He called for the eradication of Sanatan Dharma and compared it to mosquitoes, dengue, Covid-19 and malaria. He was speaking at the Sanatanam Abolition Conclave organised by the Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers Forum.
The statement from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) scion evoked sharp censures from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as from his allies in the INDIA alliance and dominated the headlines everywhere, and this is why Udayanidhi Stalin is ThePrint Newsmaker of the Week.
Meanwhile, for Udhayanidhi, the controversy has only helped the leader go beyond the ‘dynast’ criticism that DMK’s political rivals have often hurled at him. It has helped him brand himself, in his own words, as “the heir of CN Annadurai.”
As expected, the comments didn’t make waves in the party’s home state of Tamil Nadu.
In the ruling DMK’s home turf, the actor-turned-politician’s take on Sanatan Dharma was hardly shocking considering the history of the party’s ideology.
Tamil Nadu has always been known as a deeply religious state with a large number of temples. But, the population’s electoral choices have consistently shown that the electorate has maintained a clear distinction between its spirituality and political views.
So, in Tamil Nadu’s political circles, the discussion centred on how the BJP’s reaction buried the other questions Udhayanidhi raised in the same speech. “For the last 9 years, all your [BJP] promises are empty promises. What have you exactly done for our welfare,” he had asked
While Congress’ Priyank Kharge, Karti Chidambaram, and Udit Raj have come out in support of Udhayanidhi, the party has distanced itself from the comments. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut have condemned it. The BJP interpreted Udhayanidhi’s remarks as a call for “genocide” and equated the Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin’s son to “Hitler”.
An FIR has been registered against Stalin Jr. and Kharge for their comments by UP police and Delhi police. Tamil Nadu police, meanwhile, has booked BJP’s Amit Malviya and an Ayodhya seer who put a Rs 10cr bounty on Udhanayidhi for ‘inciting violence’ and ‘death threats’.
But the controversy has only propelled Udhayanidhi from a budding regional leader to the centre stage of national politics.
Also read: Stop defending Udhayanidhi under right to free speech. We’re not France
Rise in Udhayanidhi’s political capital
A film producer, distributor, actor, turned neta Udhayanidhi is often described by the state’s Opposition as the product of “dynasty politics”. Coming from a political lineage, Stalin Jr. is often seen as the natural choice for the party’s next-in-command. Much like how MK Stalin was for his father and DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi.
In the last 74 years of the DMK, the cadre strength of the party has seen a consistent growth. Right from the grassroots level, generations of party members continue to hand over the baton to their successors who remain loyal to the party.
The only major split was in 1972 when MG Ramachandran and a large section of his followers split from the DMK to form the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK).
The logic of the cadres is simple—A doctor’s son becomes a doctor, an engineer’s son an engineer, then why shouldn’t a politician’s son become a politician?
Though Udhayanidhi was appointed as the DMK’s youth wing leader in 2019, it was only during the 2021 election campaign for the state assembly polls that he was noticed as a political force.
His casual attire of jeans and a white shirt to his informal style of speech, Udhayanidhi won the crowd with his cinematic flair during the campaigns.
His popular appeal reached new heights with the release of Maamannan in June this year. Directed by Mari Selvaraj, the film is produced by and stars Udhayanidhi as the son of a seasoned Dalit politician, Maamannan (Vadivelu) who is disgraced and shunned by a dominant caste leader Rathnavelu (Fahadh Faasil). The film explores casteism in general society and within Dravidian parties. It pushes fighting polls with dignity and self-respect as the solution.
The film comes at a time when Tamil Nadu has been seeing increased instances of caste-based violence and barriers to temple entry. It positions Udhayanidhi’s character and by extension him, as a saviour, ready to hit out at dominant caste antagonists in the polls and in the streets if need be.
As much as it has elevated Udhayanidhi’s status, dominant caste groups including Thevars, Gounders and Nadars have adopted Rathnavelu as an icon. Coincidentally, BJP’s man in the state, K Annamalai is a Gounder who has spoken about how Brahmins have been unjustly “hounded and threatened” for decades.
He had hit out at Udhayanidhi’s comments by saying that if anything must be eradicated from Tamil Nadu it is DMK.
If something needs eradication from Tamil Nadu, it is the DMK.
D – Dengue
M – Malaria
K – KosuGoing forward, we are sure that people will associate these deadly diseases with DMK.
Here is my detailed rebuttal to TN CM Thiru @mkstalin avl’s press statement today. pic.twitter.com/sg6Pmp1nTv
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) September 7, 2023
Prior to the comment, Udhayanidhi’s rise from a youth wing leader to an MLA to a minister in four years was criticised for its speed. But with his recent remarks, the 45-year-old has cemented his role as a rising star in the DMK.
Tamil Nadu has also been able to gain political mileage for its steadfastness to Dravidian politics and the ideology of Dravida Kazhagam founder Periyar, or EV Ramasamy, DMK founder CN Annadurai and M Karunanidhi.
Also read: ‘Confronting Sanatana Dharma an old tradition’ — why Udhayanidhi remark hasn’t shocked Tamil Nadu
DMK’s political ideology
Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian parties were always known to profess an atheist ideology, and Udhayanidhi’s remark can perhaps be seen as a continuation of the same. But, it is more nuanced than that. In Tamil Nadu, the comment has reignited the debate on DMK’s stand on theism, religion and Sanatan Dharma.
In Tamil Nadu, Sanatana Dharma has always been equated with the caste hierarchy. This anti-caste narrative has been present right from the Thirukkural in the 5th century. A couplet from the text reads — “The unlearned, though born in a high caste, are not equal in dignity to the learned; though they may have been born in a low caste.”
Tamil Saiva saint Ramalinga Swamigal, famously known as Vallalar, called the rigid system of Sanatana “garbage”.
The DMK finds its origins in anti-caste icon Periyar’s Dravidar Kazhagam. There was a time when the party was dominated by leaders with a stringent atheist ideology, but over the years, DMK has softened its stance to be more inclusive.
This is indicated in Stalin’s first speech as the DMK President at the general council meeting in 2018. “We are not opposed to God,” he said.
For the DMK, Hindusim is acceptable, what is not acceptable is Hindutva which stands for orthodoxy, superstition and caste discrimination.
At the same meeting in 2018, he said that family members of party leaders and cadre have faith in God. He pointed out that his wife, Durga Stalin, visits temples across the state. Ministers and MLAs like Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, a minister in the Stalin cabinet, Sekar Babu and Senthil Balaji are seen sporting vermillion on their foreheads and the former wears sacred threads tied to his hand.
“Tamil Nadu is a place where people are known for their spirituality without hate. It is in the Tamil consciousness that anything which is vertical and hierarchical has to be opposed and what we need is equality and this is part of the commonsensical understanding of the state. They are not ready to get sucked into the national manipulation,” political analyst AS Panneerselvan told ThePrint. This is why people have voted Dravidian parties to power since 1967.
DMK’s softening stance towards religion has also kept BJP at bay. The party has been attempting to aggressively expand in Tamil Nadu with a Hindutva ideology.
This will also help Stalin play the balancing act of holding on to his party’s Dravidian pride and roots, while maintaining relationships with its new INDIA allies, considering many of them have distanced themselves from Udhayanidhi’s comment.
At the same time, Stalin has also doubled down on his son’s comments. Emphasising how Santana Dharma has been used to justify casteist and sexist practices, the CM said that “Udhayanidhi only spoke against such oppressive ideologies and called (for the) eradication of practices based on those ideologies”.
He knows that realistically, this episode isn’t going to help the BJP or hurt the DMK in Tamil Nadu. Its fallout has been in the Hindi belt, as evidenced by the state media’s silence on the matter. Tamil Nadu will go about as always, it is business as usual.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)