Hindu Nationalist BJP Eyes Tamil Nadu, The Last Bastion Of Secularism In India – Analysis
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is eyeing Tamil Nadu, the last bastion of secularism in India. This south Indian State is the only one in the country to have consistently and successfully resisted the BJP’s Hindu majoritarian communalism and its anti-federal centralising policies.
In the last decade, the BJP has spread its tentacles in Eastern, Northern, Western and Central India, and has become a factor in four of the five Southern States. Only Tamil Nadu is still holding out.
If the BJP is realise its ambition to be a truly all-India party and the most powerful of all, Tamil Nadu has to be brought under its heel, by fair means or foul, through elections or with the use the Central government’s coercive instruments such as the investigating agencies. The secular and progressive government of Tamil Nadu, headed by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) with the support of the Congress, the Communists, a bunch of progressive groups and the Muslim League, has to be ousted and its ideology decimated.
The Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections are due only in April 2026, a good one year away. But the BJP has already kicked off its election campaign. Last week , it got the opposition All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) to align with it publicly in Chennai at a function held at the behest of the BJP’s overlord and powerful Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The dramatic display of was meant to signal to the Tamils, that the BJP is a serious contender for power in Tamil Nadu.
Shah made no secret of the BJP’s wish to be part of an AIADMK government if the alliance (National Democratic Alliance) wins the 2026 State elections. The BJP needs to have its hands on the levers of power in Tamil Nadu and not just a few seats in the Assembly.
As part of the electoral strategy, the AIADMK has been coerced into an alliance with it, “coerced” because it is well known that the Edappadi Palaniswamy -led AIADMK was very reluctant to be identified with the BJP. Being a quintessential Dravidian (Tamil) party, the AIADMK could not be bracketed with the BJP whose motto is “Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan” is unacceptable to the Tamils.
In 2021 the AIADMK had fought the Tamil Nadu State Assembly elections in alliance with the BJP and had lost to the DMK, winning only 66 seats as against the DMK’s tally of 133 seats. The AIADMK thereupon jettisoned the BJP before facing the 2024 parliamentary elections. But still, it could not win a single seat. This was because the Dravidian party could not wash off the stain of having been with the BJP in 2021.
Though the AIADMK had good reasons for not wanting to walk into the BJP camp again, it eventually did albeit reluctantly. It was in dire straits politically and needed a helping hand to win a few seats. The AIADMK was indeed fighting for survival. It was divided between two leaders -Edappadi Palaniswamy and O.Panneer Selvam. Another section had gone out of the party with T.T.K.Dinakaran. Its icon and legendary crowd puller, J.Jayalalitha, had died in 2016 orphaning the party. Power went out of its hands in 2021 and it was beaten hollow in the 2024 parliamentary elections.
On the other hand, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) under Chief Minister M.K.Stalin had remained united even while out of office. It was firmly backed by an alliance comprising the Congress, the two Communist parties, the Muslim League and a few other progressive outfits.
The grit with which the DMK-led alliance faced the might of the BJP (brazenly wielding the Centre’s coercive instruments), earned the admiration of the Tamils. On 25 March 2018, the DMK held a state-wide conference in Erode at which Stalin gave the following slogans for his party cadres – “Let us crush the power pile (at the Centre) ; Let us protect humanity from extremism; Let us grow a prosperous Tamil Nadu”.
Stalin formed the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) with the Congress, the communists and the Muslim League. The SPA won the 2019 parliamentary elections bagging 38 out of the 39 Tamil Nadu seats in parliament. The SPA won the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections also, bagging 159 seats out of 234 seats with 46% vote share.
After coming to power, Stalin did not make opportunistic compromises with the BJP government at the Centre. Unlike the AIADMK, the DMK fiercely opposed the Modi government’s efforts to push its centralizing agenda through the National Education Policy (NEP), imposition of the iniquitous National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET), imposition of Hindi through the Three-Language Formula. He opposed efforts to lower Tamil Nadu’s representation in parliament by an unfair de-limitation of electoral constituencies.
Stalin did not bend even when the Modi government tried to twist his arms by denying over INR 20,000 million that was Tamil Nadu’s legitimate due for improving school education in the State.
In contrast, the AIADMK was pusillanimous, even as the DMK government took the battle to the Centre and the judiciary. The AIADMK did not take a vocal stand against Governor R.N.Ravi, who had sat on 10 bills passed by the State Assembly. It was due to the DMK’s efforts, that the Supreme Court finally declared that the Governor’s conduct was illegal and deemed the bills as sanctioned. The DMK-led alliance now proposes to go to the Supreme Court to get exemption for Tamil Nadu from the iniquitous NEET All India entrance exam for medical courses.
BJP-AIADMK Planks
The Tamil Nadu BJP, under its vocal leader A.Annamalai, had been carrying out street campaigns exposing “wide spread corruption running into billions of rupees,” and the “bad” law and order situation under the DMK regime. But the impact has not gone beyond media coverage. The NDA failed to win a single seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections despite Annamalai’s high decibel campaign.
Under the influence of its highly Sanskritised and pro-North Indian Tamil Brahmin advisors, the BJP’s leaders in New Delhi launched public relations programmes which did not gel with the Dravidian Tamils. The launch of a special train to the holy city of Kashi in North India and placing a Sengol (royal staff) and a Veena in the new parliament building had no resonance with non-Brahmin Tamils whose practices and cultural symbols are different. Singing the praise of Tamil while imposing Hindi only exposed the BJP’s hypocrisy.
The issues upper-most in the mind of the majority of Tamils are the threat to the secular, democratic and federal character of the Constitution and the imposition of Hindi. On these issues, the BJP had a totally different take and the AIADMK was wishy washy.
However, there is still a ray of hope for the BJP-AIADMK alliance going by the vote share of the NDA in the 2021 Assembly elections. If the AIADMK and BJP are able to rope in the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), the Naam Tamilar Katchi and the new party floated by Actor Vijay, they could trounce the DMK-led alliance.
But the PMK is now split between Dr.Ramadoss and his son Dr. Ambumani. The Naam Tamilar Katchi led by Seeman has no firm policies. Actor Vijay’s views on issues remain a mystery.
Overall, ethnic, social justice and States ‘rights issues are as dominant in the Tamils’ minds now as they were during the parliamentary elections which the DMK alliance swept. In fact, there are more such issues which are tormenting the Tamil voter.
The recent Supreme Court strictures against the authoritarian Tamil Nadu Governor R.N.Ravi are a shot in the arm for the DMK-led alliance, brightening its chances of coming back to power, assuming that it does not bungle between now and April 2026.