Why is the current DMK government in Tamil Nadu taking a proposed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) state-wide march so seriously that it’s knocking on the Supreme Court’s doors? The DMK plans to appeal against the Madras High Court permitting RSS march rally in several districts of the state. What is scaring the DMK party all the way to New Delhi?
The saga of the proposed statewide RSS march in Tamil Nadu began in the second half of 2022. The RSS had planned a statewide road show-cum-meeting schedule at various locations in the state and sought the required permissions for the same from the state authorities. The state police under the influence of the ruling DMK party came up with ways to deny permission for the RSS march, citing “law and order issues” including the possibility of communal tensions.
A single- judge order of the state High Court passed a disappointing verdict in favour of the ruling party back in November 2022- the judgement permitted the proposed RSS march but with unreasonable conditions like permission to march only through certain areas and routes instead of all the previously requested areas and holding meetings along the permitted routes within indoor spaces or ‘compounded’ spaces such as a ground or stadium which would restrict numbers, while further cautioning the RSS against remarks and comments that could be construed as ‘communal’.
While the RSS was hoping for a massive statewide road show, as all political rallies would naturally hope for, the permitted 2022 RSS march was imposed with restrictions that clearly would not serve the ideological and political interests of the rally. Many among TN’s prominent Hindu voices found the single-judge verdict to be unfair, unreasonable and biased in favour of the state government. The RSS wisely decided to call off a rather restrictive rally, appeal to the High Court against the judgement and bide its time.
On 10 February 2023, a two judge bench reversed the previous November 4, 2022 order on the proposed rally and removed the previously imposed restrictions, citing a citizen’s /party’s basic right to hold meetings, reach out to the public and express their ideological, political views. Furthermore, the court stated that it was the duty of the state and the police department to tackle any unforseen, unpredictable Law and Order issues that may arise. Stating that “it is the duty of the state to maintain law and order”, the HC said “it is also the bounden duty of the state to provide adequate security to a lawful claim”.
In its latest verdict favoring the RSS’s right to hold their road show as much as the rights of other ideological/political parties, the HC bench of Justices R Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq said that “even though the state has the right to impose restrictions, it cannot prohibit them totally, but only impose reasonable restrictions”. The judges clearly stated “since the organisation has the right to conduct peaceful procession and meetings in public places, the state under the guise of new intelligence input, cannot seek to impose any condition which has the effect of perpetually infringing the fundamental rights of the organisation citing law and order problem, after the order passed in the writ petitions, which attained finality”.
Within a few days of the new judgement granting the required permission to the RSS for their proposed state-wide rally, the DMK’s legal wing came up with plans in scuttling the RSS march. What’s the DMK’s rush? What’s worrying the DMK even before the RSS have announced their dates and routes for the proposed rally? Is this a sign that the DMK and other secular parties are beginning to sense a coming-together of the larger Hindu community across caste divisions? The state BJP unit has found the right type of leader in Annamalai – a young, intelligent, proud Tamilian IPS officer of a humble farmer’s background with a distinguished job record, who is proudly Hindu with cultural and spiritual knowledge that is hard to match!
Has the DMK sensed some sort of Hindu awakening or resurgence in the state after several decades of an impassioned but weak BJP presence in Tamil Nasu? Or is the meteoric rise of a young, proud, charismatic, already accomplished BJP leader like Mr. Annamalai threatening the very ideological existence of the DMK? In other words, does a staunchly pseudo “secular” party like the DMK fear the rise of a large and unified Hindu votebank or the rise of a dynamic Tamil leader Annamalai, who appears to have an educated, intelligent answer to almost every ‘secular’ presumption?
Either way, it’s a late but effective wakeup call for all Tamil Hindus (regardless of class, caste, gender) who have hopefully realized that the DMK’s divide-and-rule-by-caste-and-religion policy has negatively impacted the Hindu community as a whole while simultaneously benefitting the minority Christian and Muslim communities.
The DMK like other Indian “secular” parties has proven itself to be beneficial to the minority religions at the expense of Hinduism and Tamilian Hindus. In addition to its pseudo-secular credentials, the party derives its core beliefs and tenets from the Dravidian Movement which spews venom against religious beliefs, local traditions and customs by specifically targeting Hinduism while going soft on the beliefs and customs of the Minority religions. Has the Hindu community in Tamil Nadu, across caste lines, finally realized and acknowledged this open, blatant discrimination against their beliefs, their temples and their customs, their history and their accomplishments?
Tamil Hindus across caste lines have been eagerly waiting for a man like Annamalai to lead them out of an uncomfortable, cultural and political space for over half-a-century dominated by a highly biased pseudo-secular culture that relegated them to the status of second class citizens in the land of their ancestors. Have the Hindus of the state finally realized – United we stand, Divided we lose?
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