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The News Minute Tries To Buttress A Raja For His “Jai Shri Ram, Chi! Idiots!” Statement

The Commune

The News Minute is back with its next offering to buttress the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s motor mouth MP A Raja. They begin their article with these sentences – “Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP A Raja’s recent speech on the ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogan – which has been weaponised by Hindutva supporters – has led to a controversy with many accusing him of being ‘anti-Hindu.’ Addressing a gathering at Gobichettipalayam on March 3, on the day of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s birthday celebrations, Raja had said that he will not respect the god or the ‘Jai Sri Ram’ slogan which symbolises religious intolerance. A part of this has now been cropped and circulated on social media by handles associated with the right-wing, calling it ‘hate speech’.”

They then go on to translate different parts of his speech – in the process, unknowingly (or knowingly) giving evidence of the hate speech Raja made. 

While the translations are all right, there are a few problematic assumptions made by the writer that are inserted here and there to make Raja look like the victim. 

The Commune was the first English news portal to publish the entire speech with the problematic parts as is. This report was later shared by Amit Malviya, In-charge of BJP’s National Information & Technology Dept. He shared videos of the hate speech (in parts) with the translations. We are reproducing the bits that created a storm on social media platforms. This is from our original report – read the full report here.

A Raja began narrating the familiar narrative of Dravidian ideology, asserting that the Gujarat government, through its cabinet, made a decision claiming that the accused, identified as Brahmins, and so they were released from prison.

“Say that love is God. Say that God is there in the humanity shown between individuals. Say that God’s abode is a heart with no ill intentions. Say that you can see God in a poor person’s smile. On such a God neither we, nor Kalaignar, nor Anna nor Periyar don’t have any anger! But if you say this is the God. If this is your Jai Sri Ram, if this is your Bharat Mata Ki Jai, we will never accept that Jai Sri Ram and Bharat Mata. Tamil Nadu won’t accept. You go and tell, we’re enemies of Ram.“, A Raja went on a rant.

Later he recounted the tale of Kamba Ramayana. However, in a surprising twist at the conclusion, he confidently affirmed his own perspective “I don’t have faith in Ramayana, and lord Ram“.

Then he conveyed strong disdain saying “If you say that the in name of the Ramayana is human harmony, where four brothers are born as siblings, one Kuravar as brother, one Hunter as brother, another monkey as another brother, another monkey as the 6th brother, then your Jai Sri Ram is Chi! Idiots!

Malviya shared the videos with subtitles in the post caption as well as The Commune’s report for reference. However, while translating the speech, The News Minute has taken extra liberty to add this sentence in their translation. “He further added that this figure has been turned into a divisive one and added, “your Jai Sri Ram is Chi! Idiots!”.”

Ignoring The Call For Balkanisation By Raja

Raja in his speech had said that India was not a nation but a sub-continent, similar to the divisive notion of India peddled by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

“India is not a nation. Understand this well. India is never a nation. One nation means one language, one tradition, and one culture. Then only it is one nation. India is not a nation but a subcontinent. What’s the reason? Here, Tamil is one nation and one country. Malayalam is one language, one nation, and one country. Oriya is a nation, a language, and a country. All these nations make up India. So, India is not a country it is a subcontinent. There are so many traditions and cultures. If you come to Tamil Nadu, there’s a culture. In Kerala, there’s another culture. In Delhi, there’s another culture. In Oriya, there’s another culture. Why in Manipur, as RS Bharathi said, they eat dog meat. Yes, it is true, they eat. That’s a culture. There’s nothing wrong. It’s all in our mind.” DMK MP A Raja said.

Wonder in which world is this not a call for balkanisation of India – in the Communists’ dream world? The TNM article further said, “The BJP has been attacking Raja unabated.”

Supporting Raja’s Speech Following Udhayanidhi’s Eradicate Sanatana Dharma Remarks

Next comes the soft support that Raja gave Udhayanidhi after his ‘eradicate Sanatana Dharma’ remarks. They wrote, “Earlier in September 2023, coming out in support of Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin who made comments about Sanatan dharma, Raja said that Udhayanidhi criticised Sanatana Dharma “softly” and added that it was similar to illnesses like leprosy and HIV. Udhayanidhi had said that Sanatan dharma should be eradicated like malaria and dengue.”

While The News Minute tries to portray A Raja’s speech as something very noble, they are themselves proving that he spoke in divisive language, he spoke anti-Hindu words, while insulting Hindu faith and beliefs. 

The News Minute’s Dhanya Rajendran and Shabbir Ahmed recently received brickbats from DMK supporters for some of their reports, especially around the time of the December 2023 floods. Following this backlash, the news portal has gone above and beyond to buttress the DMK as much as possible. 

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