The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, which shot to prominence due to its anti-Hindi agitation in the 1960s, caught the attention of both supporters and critics when it posted a tweet in Hindi yesterday. The one-liner, accompanied by a Hindi-subtitled video of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, comes after his son Udhayanidhi’s inflammatory remarks on Sanatana Dharma.
The tweet can be roughly translated as this: “As long as women receive this monthly grant, Stalin rules the land.”
The timing, of course, raises many questions. Is it an attempt to divert attention from the scandal Udhayanidhi has caused, or DMK’s push to highlight what it deems a sharp statement from the CM? Stalin made this remark while launching a popular social welfare scheme on CN Annadurai’s birthday on 15 September.
What is Stalin’s motivation?
The Tamil Nadu government has been circulating Hindi advertisements in widely read Hindi dailies. Additionally, DMK has started posting a lot of Hindi content on social media platforms such as Facebook. Is it the party’s attempt to self-catapult to the national stage by forging closer ties with North-Indian states in case INDIA comes to power? It clearly wants a chunk in major portfolios, just like during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure.
Does this mean DMK will compromise on its popular anti-Hindi stance? This tweet comes from a CM who had once lashed out at Home Minister Amit Shah for asserting on the 2019 Hindi Diwas that “Hindi was the most widely read and understood language in the country.” Stalin had retorted by declaring that this was “India, not Hindia”. And now, we see his party tweeting in Hindi, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition party in Tamil Nadu, surprisingly welcoming it. BJP is viewing it as a positive change. The party’s state Vice-President, Narayanan Thirupathy, told me that such “a change of heart is always welcome.”
Stalin had accused the BJP of raking up the Sanatana Dharma issue “for covering up its failures and corruption” and of diverting public attention from the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on the National Highways Authority of India. “BJP is silent on the CAG report, which divulges corruption to a tune of Rs 7.5 lakh,” Udhayanidhi had said.
Leaders from the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), such as Kovai Sathyan, told me that DMK’s sudden interest in tweeting in Hindi is a desperate attempt to deflect attention from Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids in the state. AIADMK also mocked Stalin for releasing a Malayalam greeting video for Keralites on Onam and said that if he can tweet in Hindi, why can’t he greet North Indians on Ganesh Chaturthi or Diwali or Ram Navami?
The DMK’s Hindi tweet has generated diverse responses from X users. Some have questioned the need for Hindi subtitles in Stalin’s video, while others have dug up old photos of Udhayanidhi where he was seen sporting a T-shirt with the “Hindi theriyathu poda (I don’t know Hindi)” slogan.
Regardless of one’s perspective on the DMK’s Hindi tweet, it marks a noticeable shift in the party’s approach, which people in the Hindi heartland may welcome. But it remains to be seen whether Stalin and his party will extend a similar outreach to Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi and Assamese speakers, to name a few.
The author tweets @RAJAGOPALAN1951. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)