THE Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), under the leadership of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Mr. M K Stalin is practising sectarianism by opposing Hindi as a language, replacing even the symbol of ‘Indian Rupee’ with a Tamil letter in State Budget logo, and now using the stirred up atmosphere to oppose the proposed delimitation of constituencies. Mr. Stalin has been doing it very systematically to hide the real intention of resorting to cheap and divisive politics. However, he has forgotten that the people today live in the era of multiculturalism and are more open to new ideas. People, especially youngsters, are willing to celebrate diversity and inclusion.

 

They use technology to bust the lies of the political leaders resorting to cheap narratives. So, whatever Mr. Stalin might say may ultimately damage his own image even within Tamil Nadu. Previously also, in the name of Tamil culture, several politicians tried to misguide people into opposing modern Indian ethos. While opposing other Indian languages like Sanskrit and Hindi, they allowed foreign language English to grow. Mr. Stalin is playing the same trick again, unaware that Tamil and Hindi speaking people had long begun cultural exchange and developed better understanding of each other, defeating the divisive political narratives. Mr. Stalin’s real intention is not to protect Tamil culture. Else, he would have celebrated the installation of ‘Sengol’, a symbol of power that dates back to powerful Chola dynasty of Tamil Nadu.

 

Else, instead of replacing ‘Rupee’ symbol with aTamil letter, he would have celebrated the fact that the‘Rupee’ symbol was designed by a Tamilian Mr. Udaya Kumar, who is son of former DMK MLA Mr. N Dharmalingam. Mr. Stalin’s failure in celebrating these exposes that he never intended to celebrate Tamil culture or Tamilians, but to use those as mere tools of parochial brand of politics. Besides, if he is so opposed to Hindi as a language, why has he allowed Tamil movies to be dubbed in Hindi? Probably, commerce matters more to him in this case than championing the cause of opposing Hindi. His stand is full of contradictions because his inherent idea is to rake up a political controversy to prevent weakening of political fortunes of his party, which he has turned into a dynastic setup.

 

Mr. Stalin’s cheap political intentions are reflected in his latest bid to call a meeting of the Southern States over the ‘issue’ of delimitation. When the last delimitation order was issued in 2008, the UPA led by Congress party and comprising DMK as one of the alliance partners was in power. That time, no such meeting of the Southern States was called by the DMK leadership of the time. Now, Mr. Stalin is doing so because he wants to dictate how delimitation process should work. Instead of the process carried out in accordance with the laid-down principles, he is sticking to only protecting the number of seats. It is obvious that he has no confidence about his party’s prospects if the composition of the constituencies is changed as per the prescribed norms. And, an important part of the prescribed norms is population census. The census is yet to be conducted. Still, Mr. Stalin is trying to create a kind of phobia that the number of seats would be reduced in delimitation. Mr. Stalin must realise that sectarianism and falsehood may help in grabbing headlines but would serve no State or national good, because people want to stay united, not divided.