PUDUCHERRY: Tamil nationalism rooted in equality and secularism offers an alternative to the BJP's Hindutva politics, said VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan on Saturday, defending his party's political decision and rejecting criticism from rival parties.
Addressing a special executive committee meeting at the Kamban Kalaiarangam in Puducherry ahead of the proposed Tamil Nationalist Resurgence Conference to be held at Ulundurpet on August 17 to mark his birthday, Thirumavalavan said politics has become a "commercial term" though it was fundamentally a science that every citizen should understand.
Stating that several political movements have been targeting the VCK before and after elections, he said the party's decision to support the TVK government in Tamil Nadu was taken democratically after detailed discussions and was the correct course of action.
Thirumavalavan said that attempts were made to exploit dissatisfaction over the denial of election tickets to three aspirants in the VCK to engineer a split in the party, but those efforts had failed.
Claiming that the VCK played a crucial role in the DMK alliance's electoral success, he said there was sufficient evidence to prove the party's contribution. He also pointed to the electoral setbacks suffered by other parties, stating that the AIADMK had been reduced to 47 seats, the NTK's vote share had fallen from 8% to 4%, and the BJP's vote share had dropped from 11.5% to 2.5%.
Despite these reverses, criticism continued to be directed only at VCK, he said, adding that some political forces were still unwilling to accord the party due importance in the TVK government.
Expounding on the party's ideological position, Thirumavalavan said the Constitution drafted under the leadership of Dr BR Ambedkar envisioned India as a secular nation. He accused the BJP and the RSS of promoting a religiously rooted concept of nationalism centred on ancient 'Bharat' and Hindutva. Tamil nationalism represented a secular and inclusive alternative based on equality, eradication of caste discrimination, and greater autonomy for states instead of excessive centralisation of powers by the union government, he said.
Since a majority of India's population speaks languages other than Hindi, Tamil nationalism reflects the country's linguistic and cultural diversity, he added.
On the student protests over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination, Thirumavalavan said the VCK had consistently opposed NEET since its inception. While noting that the examination was introduced during the Congress regime, he alleged that neither the Congress nor the BJP was prepared to abolish it.
