After dropping his tilak/kungumam sporting picture from his party’s letter pad, Dravidianist actor and recently-turned politician Vijay changed his social media profile pictures to de-Hinduize himself and come across as secular.
Earlier, TVK Vijay’s social media handle had a pleasant picture of Vijay smiling with a small tilak/kungumam on his forehead. The changed picture now has Vijay with a barren forehead like a typical DMK politician who doesn’t believe in God.
This is the third instance within a span of few days where Vijay has de-Hinduized himself. Earlier, in a press note informing people about his upcoming conference/meeting at Vikravandi on 27 October 2024, Vijay’s letter pad that bears his photo, apart from other details, had something very obviously missing—the tilak—kungumam on his forehead.
This is in stark contrast to the very first press note announcing his entry into politics back in February 2024 which had a picture of the actor with a very visible tilak/kungumam on the forehead.
#தமிழகவெற்றிகழகம் #TVKVijay pic.twitter.com/ShwpbxNvuM
— TVK Vijay (@tvkvijayhq) February 2, 2024
Prior to that, he went to pay respects to the anti-Hindu bigot EVR (hailed as ‘Periyar’ by his followers) and hailed him as a ‘Socrates of the South’.
Vijay seems to be following the same DMK’s Dravidian Model of ‘rationalism’ by blatantly avoiding wishing Hindus for Hindu festivals such as Tamil Puthandu, Vinayakar Chathurthi, and Krishna Jayanti. In contrast, he wished for Onam, Ramzan, Easter, and secular special days such as Labour Day, Independence Day, etc.
Actions like these indicate that Vijay is also set to walk the Dravidianist ideology path and further strengthen the claims that his party is only DMK 2.0. Political observers already note that Vijay must be DMK’s proxy to cut anti-DMK votes in 2026 just like how Kamal Haasan turned out to be a vote-cutter pushing DMK to power in 2021. In that case, Vijay should consider renaming his party from Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam to Dravida Vettri Kazhagam.
Subscribe to our Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram channels and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.