Veteran and presently sidelined Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has become very vocal of late on a multiplicity of political issues. Having expressed support for the Left ruling coalition in Kerala against that of his own party, he has now come out in support of DMK leader MK Stalin as a ‘secular’ politician. All of these statements reveal a lot about the mindset of a certain class of politicians that dominated the narrative for decades before the coming of the NDA to power.
How does someone whose ideology considers Sanatan Dharma to be ‘cholera’ that requires to be wiped out be considered secular? Aiyar’s support for him shows how this ideological undercurrent has existed not just in areas dominated by the racist DMK, but also in the high intellectual circles that dominated academia and shaped the content of university curricula. This ideology has now morphed into new forms of activism that project Sanatan as ‘Brahminism’ and patriarchal oppression. The continuing clashes among ‘student’ activists in JNU reveal the extent to which the brainwashing has led to ideological extremism.
Aiyar’s praise for Stalin brings focus on the fact that the next ideological battle is going to be fought particularly in the coming Tamil Nadu and Kerala assembly elections. (The battle in West Bengal is being fought in a slightly different context, as it also involves external forces. Anyway, TMC’s Mamata Banerjee has also received Aiyar’s praise as most suitable to lead the INDI Alliance.)
Just as elections restored some balance in Bangladesh, which was teetering on the edge of radicalism of the kind that prevails in Afghanistan and Iran, it is necessary for the people of Tamil Nadu to oust the increasingly radicalising DMK. It should be made clear that anti-national posturing, racist and casteist targeting of Hindus is unacceptable to the people of the state. Even the language politics being so energetically pursued, which is harming the future prospects of the state’s youth, should be put in its place. It should be realised that Aiyar’s support comes from a desperate need for ‘anti-Hindu’ secularism to restore its rapidly eroding hold over the national narrative. It is not as though the DMK has always had a hold over power in Tamil Nadu; it is just that, after Jayalalitha, there has not been a charismatic enough figure – and required political unity among the opposition – to pose an effective challenge. There is a new challenger in film star Vijay. How much he will unite the opposition vote remains to be seen, in what will be a pivotal moment in Tamil Nadu’s history.
