While development, federalism, communalism and Dravidian ideologies have been the main conversations around elections in Tamil Nadu this time, slowly but steadily, the accusation that the DMK is an anti-Hindu party has been made an election topic by the AIADMK and the BJP. Whether it’s posting Stalin’s videos criticising Hindu rituals, or Dravida Kazhagam leader Veeramani’s comments on Lord Krishna, the accusation that the DMK works against the rights of Hindus, seems to be one that MK Stalin could not ignore anymore.
And this is perhaps why the DMK President chose to say during a political campaign that his party was not against Hindus or Hinduism. Stalin was at Tirunelveli, campaigning for the party’s candidate Gnanadiraviyam on Tuesday when he launched an attack on the BJP, accusing it of trying to spread rumours that DMK was an anti-Hindu party. “I am asking them if DMK is an anti-Hindu party, then who are all those people who are in DMK? Can they answer this question?” he said, adding that Hinduism does not belong to the BJP alone. “They are staging a drama like they are the gatekeepers of Hinduism,” he said.
Pointing out the DMK’s manifesto which has a section specifically for the protection of religions, Stalin said that the party is not against any particular religion or caste. “DMK’s primary duty is to protect social harmony. We have clearly mentioned in our manifesto that the central and the state governments must protect the traditions of all religions without differentiating into majority and minority,” he said. He added that in the manifesto for the 2019 general elections, the DMK has stressed on the importance of forming a special team to check the theft of idols from temples.
Listing out DMK’s initiatives in the past, Stalin said that the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M Karunanidhi had done a lot for the Hindus in the state. “In 1996, when DMK came back to power, it was the then Chief Minister Kalaignar who formed an expert advisory committee under the auspices of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department to give suggestions for the improvement of administration of temples. He recovered more temple properties than his predecessor and improved the revenues in temples,” he said.
Adding that it was due to Karunanidhi’s efforts that a prohibition to sell temple land to private parties was put in place, Stalin said that it was also during the DMK regime that the maximum number of kumbabishekams took place in temples across the state.
“He only brought in pension scheme for priests. He released aagama texts in Tamil. He released the books in praise of Lords Vinayaga, Murugan, Shiva and Perumal and enabled worship in Tamil. He also determined fair rent for the properties of temples. He provided free electrical lamps to temples which did not have enough money,” Stalin pointed out, and said that it was the DMK patriarch who passed a law which allowed people from any caste to become temple priests. “Even after all this, some people are saying that we are against Hindus,” he said.
His comments on DMK’s efforts towards Hinduism comes days after he called the outrage against Veeramani a ‘planned RSS conspiracy’. Speaking to news agency ANI, Stalin defended Veeramani’s remarks on Lord Krishna and said that those comments were taken out of context. He also emphasised DMK’s stance when it comes to religion and said that temples must not become a haven for evil. Narrating an example from his personal life, Stalin pointed out that his wife Durga also frequently visits temples but not once has he asked her why she was going.