The Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP is desperate to gain visibility, further distancing the party from state politics.
The BJP’s grand design to stimulate Hindutva ideologies for a political harvest through its Vel Yatra in the Dravidian land of Tamil Nadu has turned out to be a jet of water. In addition to the people’s response being lukewarm, the Madras High Court criticized the party and expressed strong disapproval, while the ruling AIADMK government in the state also told the court that there was nothing “spiritual” about the yatra.
The apprehension of the state and its institutions that it could create communal unrest in a peaceful land was not unfounded given the precedence of the rath yatra undertaken by BJP leader LK Advani to claim the Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya in 1992 and the subsequent violence in many countries. . northern states where thousands died.
The Vel Yatra was intended to cover the six abodes of Lord Murugan in the state, called arupadai veedu in Tamil, and is planned to culminate on December 6, the anniversary of the demolition of Babri Masjid, in Tiruchendur, which features a temple to the seashore. for the deity. On the first day of the yatra, the BJP state president, L Murugan, and some cadres were taken into preventive custody for defying COVID-19 government restrictions in Tiruttani, where the yatra began. Being released at night, they resumed the yatra two days later from a different location. They were arrested again and later released to return the following day.
In fact, the BJP, unlike the devout Murugan devotees of Tamil Nadu, has not set out on the path of a pilgrim. Lakhs of Tamil devotees take a vow and embark on a long and tedious journey on foot, barefoot, from their native places to the different temples of Murugan in the Tamil month of Thai each year. But this ‘yatra’ of the BJP, ostentatiously organized for a ‘political-spiritual revival’, has no trace of such piety and devotion. It has only become one more addition to the growing list of failed party programs being carried out to gain a foothold in the state where the seven-decade-old Periyarista movement of self-respect is deeply rooted in the sociocultural and political spirit of Tamil society.
Indeed, long before the BJP could think of Vel Yatra, DMK leader M Karunanidhi brought out a similar yatra during MGR’s reign in 1982, but on foot – ‘Long March to Tiruchendur’ – from Madurai in search of justice. regarding the mysterious death of a temple official and Lord Muruga’s supposed lost diamond spear.
After a group of YouTuber called Karuppar Koottam (Black Group) made fun of ‘Kanda Sashti Kavasam’, a devotional interpretation of Lord Muruga, the Hindutva forces saw an opportunity and blamed the DMK. The DMK had denied it, saying it was a Hindu-majority party. The AIADMK government was forced to take action against the group, including arresting some of the YouTubers and detaining them under the draconian Goondas Law.
Vel, ‘spear’ in English, is considered Lord Muruga’s main weapon and symbolizes the destruction of evil. The Murugan cult has long been associated with the Tamils, as has the Ram cult with the North Indians. Even during the recent groundbreaking function of the Ayodhya temple, there was no palpable celebration in Tamil Nadu as in the north, where Ram politics is the main staple of the BJP. And when the entire north was on fire after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, Tamil Nadu remained totally calm and peaceful.
Since the ‘Jai Ram’ policy failed to create any vibes in Tamil Nadu, a visibly upset BJP seems to have decided to adopt Lord Muruga, who is fervently worshiped in non-Brahmin Hindu homes. Among the Brahmins, it is the Iyer, the Saivaite Brahmins, who worship Lord Murugan as the Aryanized Lord Subramanian or Karthikeyan, while the Iyengars, the Vaishnavite Brahmins, hardly worship him.
To understand the BJP politics behind Vel Yatra and Lord Muruga, it is necessary to understand who he is and how he influences Tamils culturally and religiously. According to Tamil literature and mythologies, Lord Muruga is basically a warrior hero worshiped by the people of the landscape ‘Kurinchi’ (mountainous region), which later emerged as a separate cult.
The Murugan cult has long been associated with the Tamil language and its culture. Sangam literature, which dates back to 300 BC. C., describes Murugan as the Tamil god who presided over one of the three Sangams, an ancient seat said to have been established by poets and kings for the development of Tamil and its literature. Tholkappiam, an ancient Tamil work from the Sangam era, refers to Murugan as the god of the Tamils. His benevolence has been sung in Thirumurugatrupadai and Paripaadal. Many other literary works carry references to the Murugan cult.
It is culturally integrated into the life of the Tamils and is as popular as the worship of Ram and Krishna in the north. Here his devotees visit his six heavenly abodes, all located within Tamil Nadu, every year. Therefore, it is not surprising that the BJP, when the Ram Janmabhoomi temple ceremony did not generate any stir in Tamil Nadu, decided to appropriate the murugan cult of the Tamils mainly to court the Tamil OBC and Dalits.
Although the Tamil warrior god has long been “Aryanized”, he is still the most revered among the gods in today’s Tamil population. But what the Hindutva forces have yet to realize is that the Tamils have a unique trait: they pray to their gods while embracing Periyarist ideologies.
Fighting in dravidian land
Sadly, the BJP remains a failure in Tamil Nadu despite its political maneuvers. The party, especially its Tamil Nadu unit, is desperate to gain visibility in the state. In a hurry, he has been performing fragile acts, such as Vel pooja and Vel yatra, as part of his broader agenda to dislodge the big Dravidians, the DMK and AIADMK, which have been in power since 1967 after toppling Congress.
Without a mature political approach to counter complex Dravidian politics, the BJP is drawing an enormous force from unbridled power in the Center and is desperately resorting to many nasty political maneuvers. These blatantly visible acts of despair and despondency have further alienated them in state politics, though they could have written success stories elsewhere, mainly in crafting policies of intimidation and hatred, dismantling and neutralizing strong regional parties, and silencing others. their leaders.
However, the BJP has realized that Tamil Nadu is not a safe ground for their game. Although it has corroded into the ruling dispensation, the AIADMK, thus exploiting its leadership vacuum after the disappearance of its leader Jayalalithaa, who left neither a will on his property nor an heir to his policy, and demanded ransom from many of his ministers. and officials. Under the ruse of various charges supported by the Union government investigative agencies, the party still faces an obstacle in its progress and a formidable enemy in the DMK leading a secular alliance in the state.
Politics in Tamil Nadu requires the political aspirant to understand the complexity of Dravidian politics and the nuanced effect it has left on the psyche of an adult Tamil today. AIADMK founding leader MG Ramachandran and his protégé Jayalalithaa did so with aplomb. “You need to master the art of inclusive social justice policies here. And you can’t separate social justice from Periyar. If you don’t like Periyar, stay away from him, ”said a senior DMK leader.
Any team that wishes to engage in politics outside the realm of social justice will be bragged here as a “foreigner.” Realizing this, the two Dravidian parties have judiciously mixed social justice with development in their electoral politics. This visionary approach has propelled the state to the number one position in many development fields, which is why the BJP’s flaunting of development policies in states like Gujarat could not take off in Tamil Nadu. Having exhausted all strategies, the BJP has sadly turned to its archaic Hindutva agenda through Vel poojas and Vel yatras.
The immediate agenda of the BJP is to dismantle the AIADMK, organizationally. Party stalwarts think it is strategically important to weaken and neutralize the powerful leader of AIADMK, as it is a risk to face two great Dravidians at the same time. The BJP believes that the time has come to “initiate a proactive policy to liberate Tamil Nadu from Dravidian rule”, as the AIADMK is convulsed by internal activities and divisions, as well as a leadership vacuum. He believes it is now or never and even dismisses any political significance associated with the alleged arrival of Sasikala, Jayalalithaa’s close aide, who is now in a Bengaluru prison.
But his main goal is to eradicate the DMK that stands between his great ‘One Nation; Design of a culture. Therefore, Sangh Parivar and his vloggers and bots have unleashed a campaign on social media that DMK is anti-Hindu. But political observers see it as another strategic failure of the BJP in Tamil Nadu. “Who will trust them when they call the DMK, which has 90% Hindus on its lists, as ‘anti-Hindu’? In addition, it links any team that propagates atheism, Dravidian ideologies and periyarism to the DMK, to launch a smear campaign of hoaxes and vilifications on social media. That negative policy will not sell here. You must remind them now that the DMK won all but one district in the 2019 parliamentary elections, “said a DMK official.
When Murugan, a Dalit, assumed command of the BJP state unit, he tried to adopt a safe strategy to dilute the hateful rhetoric of the Tamil Nadu BJP against Periyar, which has always been propagated by some Brahmin officials such as H Raja. , who was recently stripped of the post of national secretary, and comedian S Ve Shekar among others. Murugan has made it clear that he respected Periyar for his social progressiveness but not for his atheism. He even went so far as to say that those who desecrated Periyar’s statues would not be tolerated.
In fact, the BJP, to counter Dravidian politics, would prefer to have any non-Brahmin as head. Although Murugan was appointed president of the state, what some Dalit writers had hailed as “empowering Dalits”, it is quite evident that he could not function independently. Former Tamilisai President Soundararajan, also a non-Brahmin and now also the governor of Telangana, faced the same situation, reports at the time claimed.
AR Meyyammai, a journalist with two decades of experience, has worked for The Hindu, The New Indian Express and the Deccan Chronicle.
The opinions expressed are those of the author.
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