Chennai: Portraying Modi and the RSS as forces ranged against the Tamils and their language as well as culture, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has set the tone of his campaign for the Tamil Nadu assembly elections.
If Modi sports a dhoti for the visit of Xi Jingping and tweets about Thirukural, Rahul goes a step further and claims that he is a Tamil though not born here. It is a new turf that the national parties are competing with each other ahead of the assembly elections in the crucial southern state.
In his three-day whirlwind tour of Western Tamil Nadu, an erstwhile bastion of the Congress, Rahul mingled with the crowd and recalled his family’s close ties with the Dravidian heartland. He accused Modi of trying to crush the identity of Tamils with a monolithic majoritarian identity.
Reviving the Congress' fortunes in poll-bound Tamil Nadu, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi donned the Tamil cap and took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the saffron brigade, accusing them of being anti-Tamil. It was the focus all along throughout his roadshows during his three-day election campaign in western Tamil Nadu.
He had gone to the extent of claiming himself to be a Tamil, though not one by birth. From participating in the jallikattu (Bull taming sport) during the Pongal festival and now christening the launch of his campaign as 'Tamil Vanakkam' (Salute Tamil), the scion of Congress' first family has been playing the game of identity politics to his advantage.
Since passion for the mother tongue runs very deep in the political discourse of the state, the Congress can shy away from espousing it. More so when Prime Minister Modi and the BJP never miss an opportunity to latch on to Tamil culture and sentiment despite the criticism of appropriation.
With Rahul too laying claim for the mantle, Tamil has become the new turf for a political battle. The Congress leader blamed the Modi government of not respecting pluralism and the self-respect of Tamils.
“We will not allow Narendra Modi to destroy the foundation of India... He doesn't understand that only Tamil people can decide the future of Tamil Nadu. 'Knickerwallahs' from Nagpur can never ever decide the future of the state,” he told a gathering.
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"Because the BJP pulls the strings of the AIADMK government, it could not hope to control the 7 crore Tamils," he added.
Further, he charged Modi with not respecting Tamil language and culture as well as history by attempting to impose a majoritarian view.
“TheBJP-led government has always been trying to impose one language and one culture in the country. This is completely unacceptable,” he stressed.
“The prime minister believes that Indian should have only one culture, one language and one idea. Modi believes that people should worship only one person and that should be him. He does not understand the spirit of the Tamil people, culture and language. Tamil people will respond only to love and kindness because Tamils have self-respect,” he told a gathering in Coimbatore.
On the contrary, he presented himself as pro-Tamil. “Though I am not born a Tamil, I respect Tamil. My grandmother and father had good relations with Tamil Nadu. But, it was not a political relationship but that of a family bond. It is a blood relationship and I have come here as a family member. I want to be a member of the Tamil community,” he had said.
The western region of Tamil Nadu had been a Congress fortress till 1975. Congress stalwarts like C Rajagopalachari and C Subramaniam hailed from the region which had four TNCC presidents as well. After the demise of the iconic leader and former Chief Minister K Kamaraj, it had turned out to be an AIADMK stronghold. No wonder that Rahul's intent was to redeem the party in this part.
The BJP, forced to shed its 'north Indian tag' has been warming up to the Tamils by espousing Tamil culture. Earlier in 2019, during his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Modi was sporting a 'dhoti'. He continues to tweet in Tamil on important occasions and praised the language as the oldest at his UN address. During this Pongal, BJP national president, J P Nadda and RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat celebrated the festival in Chennai dressed in dhoti.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, K. Elangovan, a political commentator, said “Rahul's visit to Madurai for witnessing Jallikattu and his election campaign, 'Salute Tamil', show that he stands for 'composite culture' not only in our state but in all the states. It is a continuation of the Congress' practice. On the contrary, the BJP and the RSS are still seen as the 'other' though of late they are trying to present a pro-Tamil face. The saffron party is yet to get naturalised in the Tamil political domain.”
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