The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) organized protests across Tamil Nadu on 27 July 2024, accusing the Union Budget 2024 of neglecting the state. DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran led the protests in Chennai. He claimed the budget discriminated against Tamil Nadu and that the central government had overlooked the state’s needs. The protests were held at various district headquarters across the state.
#WATCH | Chennai, Tamil Nadu: DMK stage a state-wide protest against the Union Budget presented on July 23, alleging that Tamil Nadu has been neglected in the budget pic.twitter.com/R8Bq5PE8KW
— ANI (@ANI) July 27, 2024
Dayanidhi Maran has once again stoked controversy for mocking Prime Minister Modi. He started by quoting PM Modi, who spoke about Tamil pride and expressed his love for Tamil language during the campaign for Lok Sabha elections 2024 back in April. He said, “The one who had stated that he would like to be reborn as a Tamilian in his next birth and one who spoke Tamil, who said it, KD Modi.”
KD is a colloquial term used to address a “Known Depradator” – a repeat offender in the eyes of the law. However, using it to speak about the Prime Minister is nothing short of derogatory.
He further said, “The elections went on for over 45 days. In the final phase, while campaigning in Odisha for the local elections. There is an IAS officer called Pandian, a Tamilian who has been living in Odisha for a long time and has even married an Odisha lady. He is almost an Odisha person himself. He is a very important person for the CM there. Modi says, ‘Can a Tamilian rule Odisha? Can Odisha be in the control of a Tamilian?’ He says he wants to be born as a Tamilian; he will do anything for votes. This is such a bad thing. How can we not condemn this? We will not forget it.”
Speaking about the alliance partners TDP and RJD, he said, “They said they will get 400+ seats, but they got only 240, so they need the help of 2 giants – Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar. Was he (Modi) justified in his actions? He gave ₹35000 crores to Nitish Kumar for flood relief. Bihar is a Hindi-speaking state, so he gave that amount. Do you know how he screwed Naidu? He gave him ₹16000 crores – that too, how do you know? He asked Naidu to take it as a loan, which would be given a loan guarantee by the union government. He has to pay both the principal and the interest. That is how Modi screwed Naidu. Very soon, Naidu will screw Modi, and this government will fall. This is the truth. This Modi government always gives more and more to the Hindi-speaking states only. Non-Hindi speaking states are being avenged by the Modi government.”
He said, “I told him to take lessons from our CM, Dravidian CM, MK Stalin. When Stalin became the Chief Minister, he said, ‘I will work not only for the people who voted for me but also for the people who did not vote for me; it is my duty.’ Shouldn’t you (Modi) also do the same? If you come here and talk about caste and religion, will we accept you? They always speak about Thirukkural.”
Jumping on to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, he said, “The one who reads the budget, every single time, this Nirmala is there no, she always quotes a Thirukkural. This time, she neither quoted a Kural nor Tamil or Tamil Nadu. When they did not get votes from here (TN), they did this. I don’t know where this lady Nirmala Sitharaman studied on this earth. She created a new “East“. She says Bihar is East, Andhra Pradesh is East, and others are not. West Bengal is not East for her, nor is Odisha. Even though Andhra is only a short distance from here, it is east, and we are not. This is cheating. Nirmala Sitharaman has created a new earth.”
He further said, “I asked her, what is this, madam? Why are you saying this? Who elected you? She is not an elected member but a nominated member. So, she is not worried about the problems faced by the people.”
Recalling the floods of 2023 in TN, he said, “When the state was affected by the floods last year, it was a never-before-seen type of flood. The rains hit Thoothukudi in January 2024 after affecting Chennai in December 2023. It was an unprecedented flood. We asked them ₹35,000 crores; they gave us only ₹257 crores. They gave us peanuts and asked us to pick it up. But Bihar got ₹35,000 crores. Last year, Gujarat faced floods. They gave ₹1000 crores the next day without even being asked. Our CM is so great, he said he will ‘save the people whether you give us the money or not‘.“
Next, he spoke about Modi’s roadshows. He said, “He (Modi) came for roadshows in Chennai, right? Where did he go? To his favourite place, West Mambalam. Tell me why he went there.” At this point, the audience replied, “Ava (Brahmins) live there.”
In April 2024, at the height of the election campaigning, Maran called Modi’s roadshows “a circus.”
He claimed the local people covered up the Thiruvika Housing society where the poor lived so that Modi would not see it. He continued, “So what if he sees, even if our people are poor, we earn and have self-respect? We do not beg. Next, he went to Coimbatore for another roadshow, he went to all his favourite places. There is a joker, what is his name? “Aatukutty” (lamb) (referring to the derogatory name given to Annamalai by Dravidianists). He went there for the lamb’s sake. Both Chennai and Coimbatore got “naamam” (a derogatory representation of the Vaishnavite mark on the forehead connected to cheating.
It is noteworthy that when interviewed by journalists during the election campaign, Maran addressed TN BJP chief K Annamalai as a joker and pretended not to have heard of him.
~ Annamalai…
~ Oh, that joker…
~ Are you underestimating?
~ Are you overestimating?
Hilarious One from Dayanidhi Maran😂🔥 pic.twitter.com/8Sfy5DMQzM
— Mannu (@mannu_meha) April 10, 2024
Immediately, he jumped on the topic of Metro Rail. He said, “They did not give even a single rupee for the Metro Rail project. It has been in process for three years. You know what our CM said: I don’t care whether you give us the funds or not; we will take care of the Metro Rail project funds. The TN government has allocated funds in the budget for the Metro Rail, and the second phase is in progress.”
It is noteworthy that the state government has proposed the second phase of the Metro Rail project in Chennai. According to the proposal, the state has to bear the expenses, but the centre agreed to participate in the project. In 2021, the Centre announced a budget allocation of 63000 crores
Clippings from 2021. Let the idiots in the state unit not fool you. pic.twitter.com/DA8Lhzi1Zv
— Krishnan (@cvkrishnan) July 23, 2024
Taking his tirade a step further, he said, “They feel pain only when it hurts them (avaal) but not when it hurts us. Tamilians have elephant-like memory. If anyone tries to avenge/cheat us like this, we will not forget it and teach you a lesson.”
He alleged that the central government was copying the schemes of the Dravidian government, especially the Skill Development Programme announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the budget for this year. He stated that Stalin had already implemented this through the “Naan Mudhalvan” Scheme, where 15 lakh students per year can upskill and find jobs. But he said the Union government is doing this for 20 lakh students. He said, “They are not interested in bringing any good schemes, just lip service.”
He also alleged that the central government copied the Thozhi women’s hostel programme. According to data from August 2021, when the Ministry of Women and Child Development released the first instalment to the State government of TN for the construction of a hostel building for working women with a daycare centre by the Tamil Nadu Working Women Hostel Corporation Limited (TNWWHCL) in Tambaram District, TN. The document states the central government sanctioned a non-recurring grant of ₹7,00,50,000 (seven crore fifty thousand) as the central government’s share for the construction. It further states that the grant for the construction of the hostel building represents 60% of the total approved cost of ₹11.67,50,000 (eleven crore sixty-seven lakh and fifty thousand rupees). The first instalment of this amount was a sum of ₹3,50,25,000 (three crores fifty lakh and 25 thousand rupees) (50% central govt share) for the construction of the building. The document also states that the Working Women Hostel is a sub-scheme of the Centrally Sponsored Umbrella Scheme “Mission for Protection & Empowerment for Women”. The central and state govt contribution has been calculated as a 60:40 ratio.
Good Joke. தோழி Hostel in itself is a Modi Govt. introduced 60:40 scheme where’s 60% funding is borne by Central Govt…
கூச்சமே இல்லையா @Kalaignarnews ?? https://t.co/CJ8E4os4cP pic.twitter.com/wEXJfYUxwa
— Dr.SG Suryah (@SuryahSG) July 23, 2024
Once again, he went back to the topic of Thoothukudi floods. He said (in a disrespectful manner), “When the floods came, Nirmala Sitharaman came (vandhichu). She then went to a temple; she did not go anywhere else. What did she do there? She heard about a temple wall collapsing, and at that time, when a devotee went to put money in the hundial, she said not to put it there; it would go to the government. So put it in the aarti plate. See her twisted mind. Can I tell the people not to pay taxes because our money goes to Delhi? Won’t that be cheap? A Union Finance Minister behaves so cheaply. That is because the people have not elected her, so she does not understand the pain/suffering of the people.”
He then started praising CM Stalin for boycotting NITI Aayog. He claimed that Tamil Nadu was the best state in terms of profession, education, and poverty eradication and that the state also had the best CM.
Then he started focusing on caste and invoked EV Ramasamy, he said, “We ask you to educate everyone, the people there (North) do not study and come here for work. I am not demeaning anyone. No one is high or low based on their caste. But you are asking people to do their ancestral profession – Vishwakarma. Are you doing it? You all will study at IITs and become accomplished people, but you want cobblers, barbers, and farmers to continue their ancestral profession. You want us to be your slaves? No, we won’t. This is Periyar’s land, Anna’s land, Karunanidhi’s land, and Stalin’s land, here we will study, we will ask questions, and become the best citizens of the country. Only if TN is strong will India be strong. If you try to weaken us, we (states like TN) are your backbone, do not cheat us, avenge us, we are not ready to get cheated, but we will not shy away from giving a befitting reply.”
It is interesting that, unlike other Dravidianists, Maran did not speak in secessionist language, stating TN was not a part of India.
This is not the first time Dayanidhi Maran has spoken in such a fashion against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Dayanidhi Maran has made very casteist jibes against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. He used words like “Unga thopanaar” to indicate Sitharaman’s father (in a language/dialect used by Brahmins in TN) when speaking in Parliament in February 2024 about the central government aid to TN for the floods.
Earlier in 2023, he addressed Sitharaman as “Nirmala mami” during a “day-long” fast against NEET and then pretended to have said it inadvertently. The word Mami is used as a slur and in a derogatory fashion, especially by Dravidian ideologues when addressing Tamil Brahmin women in Tamil Nadu. It is noteworthy that Dayanidhi Maran is himself married to a Tamil Brahmin from The Hindu family, and his mother, wife of Murasoli Maran, the father of Dayanidhi Maran and nephew of M Karunanidhi was also a Tamil Brahmin woman.
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