Chennai: Tamil Nadu is set to vote on 6 April, and the battle between the main contenders, the AIADMK and the DMK, is being fought as much in the information technology (IT) war-rooms as in campaign rallies, fiery speeches and on the streets.
Tit-for-tat WhatsApp memes and YouTube videos on NEET, Tamil identity, religion and dynasty rule are being generated at a feverish pace amid a heated campaign. It is increasingly becoming a game of competing social media hashtags.
The DMK’s main plank is the BJP’s shadow over AIADMK. In a rap video released last week, the opposition alluded to the BJP’s influence. “Love is our religion, we need jobs not your religious Vel and the lotus will not bloom here,” is how a portion of the song goes. The BJP had held a Vel Yatra in the state last November.
The AIADMK videos have attacked the DMK dynasty. One shows a woman reading the party manifesto and shooing away opposition politicians saying, “if you come to power, all the money will go to one family”. They also appear as advertisements on various social media platforms such as YouTube.
Also read: Take pride in Tamil, oppose Hindi — how Dravidian ideals are influencing young voters in TN
NEET
The issue of pre-medical National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) examination, a hot potato issue in Tamil Nadu, has resurfaced in this election.
The DMK has released a video highlighting the death of Dalit girl S. Anitha, who committed suicide after failing to clear NEET in 2017, blaming the AIADMK for her plight.
The AIADMK released old videos of leader DMK K.N. Nehru saying that if the NEET was not scrapped, then he would allow students to cheat and pass the exams.
The AIADMK also sent WhatsApp forwards saying the DMK was encouraging students to cheat in exams — its videos also claimed that it was the DMK that introduced NEET in the state.
Protectors of Tamil identity
To highlight that the party is the true protector of Tamil culture, the DMK’s IT wing has listed a stream of measures that it has taken to promote the language.
This, according to the party, includes teaching Tamil in schools from 1967 onwards, inaugurating the Tamil Research Institute in 1970, the Second World Tamil Conference, putting into place a separate ministerial post for Tamil language development among others.
The DMK has also released videos showing BJP members campaigning in Hindi, while claiming that the “BJP’s agenda of Tamil hatred will never succeed in the land of Periyar Anna and Kalaignar!”
Also read: From ‘rogue’ student leader to potential CM — DMK chief MK Stalin’s ‘natural metamorphosis’
Alliance with BJP
The DMK continues to attack Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami as a “puppet” of the Modi government at the Centre. Its rap video, for instance, shows Palaniswami crawling before Modi.
To counter this, the AIADMK IT wing has looked to promote Palaniswami as a “superhero chief minister” who brought in development during the Covid-19 pandemic. The party’s IT wing has also pushed out infographics and old articles to explain that deputy CM and Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam had called out the Centre for not disbursing enough funds and had opposed the three-language policy proposed by the Modi government.
Countering allegations of ruffian rule
Through its various videos and social media campaigns, the AIADMK has repeatedly accused the DMK of unruly governance during its tenure, claiming that they were also marred by power cuts and a threat to women’s safety.
An AIADMK functionary told ThePrint that a lot of the party’s videos are circulated on WhatsApp as anything it puts up on social media, the DMK ensures is removed. “It’s all on WhatsApp. If we put it on the web, they (DMK) ensure it’s gone,” he said.
The DMK’s IT wing has countered the charges by releasing a list of development work undertaken by its governments. On women’s safety, the DMK has digitised accounts of the women’s struggle during the Dravidian movement, explained a senior functionary of the party’s IT wing.
The IT wing has also shared an article calling party chief M.K. Stalin the ‘hero’ of women’s self-help groups, saying when he was home minister of the state when one lakh such self-help groups were launched.
Fake news on inter-caste marriages
The DMK was recently at the receiving end of much flak after a viral video made a false claim that its election manifesto promised Rs 60,000 in cash and an eight gram (22 carat) gold coin for inter-caste marriages in which the woman was from a dominant caste.
The DMK’s IT wing countered this through articles and press conferences that the manifesto only talked of the Anjugam Ammal Memorial Intercaste Marriage Assistance scheme, first introduced in 1967 to encourage inter-caste marriages. The party also pointed out that the scheme continued during MGR and Jayalalithaa’s tenures.
Dynasty politics
The AIADMK is focusing on the dynastic nature of politics within the DMK family. Its IT wing has pushed out videos titled “Best Awards” targeting Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin, who is also an actor. It has a clip of Udhayanidhi claiming he will never join politics, while another clip shows his father announcing him as party’s candidate from the Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni assembly constituency.
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
Also read: Prosperity line, not poverty line, will be my focus, want to bring TN above that: Kamal Haasan
Media advertisement for anti Tamil party DMK should be please stop. DMK is first of all not a Tamil party. DMK and AIADMK are Dravida parties, not Tamil parties. Media it appears, has never even done this basic homework and is reporting.
DMK pretends they are protector of Tamil language, but what the media does not know is that they shut down 1000s of Tamil schools in Tamil Nadu, gave discounted landed for Hindi imposing CBSE, Matric and ICSE schools. Even in DMK operated CBSE schools, speaking in the Tamil language is banned and involves fining the studends.
DMK and AIADMK have both perpetuated the lie of Tamil hater Periyar’s UNESCO award – this never happened. They also never talk about Periyar’s insult and hatred for Tamil language, starting of a Hindi institute and Keezhvennmani massacre where 44 Tamils were burnt to death in Tamil Nadu by Dravida parties’ same Telugu ethnic landowner mob.
DMK, AIADMK, BJP and Congress are pretty much the same party and they do permutations and combinations of coalition, but nothing is going to change. Their hatred for Tamil has been exposed for 60 years.
It is time that Tamils take over the Tamil state, we have now parties like Naam Thamizhar and Puthiyar Thamizhagam. Dravida and Delhi parties both need to be boycotted.