The TVK government claimed they came to power cutting across religious, caste, gender lines. Yes, they did – because they came with a promise of being a truly secular government.
However, much like the other political parties in the country for whom secular means minority appeasement, the TVK too toes the same line.
A few days ago, TVK Minister and Thirupparankundram MLA CTR Nirmal Kumar stated, “The govt’s stand is to follow the existing practice of lighting the deepam atop the hill. The majority of the people also desire this; they want the peaceful atmosphere to continue. We will not allow any communal forces to play politics with this,” when asked about the TVK government’s stand regarding the Deepam issue.
There is a particular kind of political audacity that comes dressed in new clothes but carries the same old contempt for the judiciary and disregards Hindu sentiments at large. Tamil Nadu is witnessing it again, this time not from the DMK, but from the Joseph Vijay TVK government.
Just to rewind, after the single judge bench of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court ordered the authorities to light the Deepam at the Deepathoon, it was defied and the order was gain upheld by the two-judge Division bench of Justices G Jayachandran and KK Ramakrishnan that the directive that temple authorities must light the Karthigai Deepam at the Deepathoon atop Thirupparankundram hill annually. The court was not ambiguous. The Division Bench made it clear that the lighting of the lamp is a must, and it has to be lit at the top of Thiruparankundram hill. Relying on a 1931 Privy Council ruling, the bench affirmed the Deepathoon as temple property, not dargah land – a purpose-built lamp post dating to the temple’s antiquity.
But if we go by the statements made by TVK minister CTR Nirmal Kumar, the TVK government seems to have made it clear that the Karthigai Deepam will not be lit at the Deepathoon and instead, it will be lit at the same location used over the last two years. The government says it wants to “prioritise maintaining social harmony.” The same language. The same evasion. A different nameplate on the door. While they did not say this in court yet, we will wait and watch if they do a contempt of court yet again, laundered through the language of peace.
The DMK’s conduct in this saga was disgraceful and well-documented. Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench had categorically directed the temple authorities to light the Karthigai Deepam at the Deepathoon “from this year onwards” and the Tamil Nadu government wilfully and deliberately defied compliance with that binding order. The HR&CE department, which manages the Thirupparankundram Murugan Temple, refused to follow the High Court and lit the light at the Uchipillaiyar Temple instead. Tamil Nadu police stopped and arrested devotees who were going to light the Karthigai Deepam, even though the court had clearly ordered that the tradition be allowed.
The DMK cited law and order. The court tore into the DMK dispensation for citing possible disturbance to peace as a reason for opposing the single judge’s order.
Joseph Vijay, who was still waiting in the wings, had not uttered a word on the issue. Even now, nothing comes out of his mouth, but his ministers and MLAs convey his government’s intent to the world.
The courts have spoken – twice. A single bench, then a division bench. The Deepathoon belongs to the temple. The Deepam must be lit. These are not political opinions; they are judicial orders. A government that ignores them is not preserving peace. It is demonstrating that it, like its predecessor, treats judicial orders as inconveniences to be managed rather than commands to be obeyed.
Just like the DMK, the TVK too seems to want to ignore the majority Hindu community’s wishes and concerns.
Hindu devotees who care about the Deepam are not asking for state largesse; they want the ritual conducted safely and lawfully. A genuine secular state does not mean ignoring religion; it means treating religion and law with equal seriousness. TVK’s posture – loud devotion in words, opaque about law in deeds, is the precise mirror image of DMK-era negligence. Both treat majority religious sentiment as a license to delay compliance, not a reason to urgently meet statutory responsibilities.
The real test before the TVK government is not whether it can issue statements about harmony. It is whether it will faithfully implement a judicial order that has now been affirmed twice. Governments change, parties change, slogans change. But the authority of the courts cannot become negotiable every time a politically sensitive issue arises. If TVK truly intends to govern differently from the DMK, this is one of the first opportunities to demonstrate it.
Subscribe to our channels on WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram and YouTube to get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.
