National News

Union Fin Min Nirmala Sitharaman Tears Into DMK MP Kanimozhi, DMK MPs And Allies Run Away

August 10, 2023
The Commune

The no-confidence motion against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA is being debated in Parliament. In connection with this, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Kanimozhi raised a few questions to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. However, just as Finance Minister was about to start her response, most of the DMK MPs and other allies left the Parliament. 

Kanimozhi put forth the question, “You have installed the Sengol in the new parliament with great fanfare but do you really know the history of Tamil Nadu? Have you heard of the Pandiyan Sengol and also do you know the history of Kannagi? Please read the Silappadigaram, don’t impose Hindi.”

On The Question Of Sengol

Finance Minister read out the questions and pointed out the fact that the Sengol particularly, as given to our first Prime Minister was also given by Aadenams who are a unique institution for Tamil Nadu. She said that the same party had no objection when the sacred Sengol has been treated as a walking stick for PM Nehru. She reminded the House that it was kept in a private house/museum and it was used as a Chhaddi (walking stick) and not Sengol. 

She asked pointedly, “Doesn’t hurt that the Tamil pride? Is that not an insult to the Tamils? So when PM Modi restored it (Sengol) to its rightful place in Lok Sabha, that became an issue, that is an insult to the Tamils. The Sengol was ignored for decades. The Sengol was lost in history and kept in some museum. The Kashi Tamil Sangamam showed how Tamil Nadu and Kashi have very deep connections. The first time you heard Tamil being quoted in the United Nations. In ‘Mann ki Baat’, PM has used Tamil so many times”.

On The Question Of Jallikattu

She also spoke about how Congress had termed Jallikattu, a sport intrinsic to Tamil culture, a “barbaric sport”. She said, “It was during the UPA government when DMK was a partner in that government that Jallikattu which is a typical reflective of Tamil culture was called a barbaric sport and was banned by that very same UPA in which DMK was a member. Is it barbaric? It took PM Modi to permit the sport in 2016 and Jallikattu was played in TN.”

Hindi Imposition

DMK MP Kanimozhi also asked the government to stop imposing Hindi on Tamilians and asked them to read the Silappadikaram since it would give valuable lessons to everyone. 

Nirmala Sitharaman, in response, emphasized that in Tamil Nadu, a mandate against learning Hindi and Sanskrit was enforced in the guise of resisting Hindi imposition, and it constituted an ideological imposition. She said that the government might have the power to promote Tamil, but it did not have the power to prevent people from learning Hindi or Sanskrit. Despite this, she said they prevented the Tamilians from studying Hindi or Sanskrit due to their hubris. She said, “I am recounting my lived experience”. She added that, “It is the same Tamil Nadu that stops every individual from learning Hindi or Sanskrit and today in the name of language they are telling us to read Silappadikaram.” 

Nirmala Sitharaman quoted Ma Po Si (Mylai Ponnusami Sivagnanam) who is considered an authority in Silappadikaram and was given the title Silambuchelvar, wrote in Tamil Murasu magazine about Silappadikkaram. Nirmala Sitharaman said our Prime Minister is already implementing Silappadikaram principles through Ek Bharat Sreshta Bharat. She quoted, Silappadikaram tells us, “We are not Dravidians, we are Tamilians. Our motherland is not Dravidam but Tamizhagam. Our northern border is Vengadam, not Vindhya, and beyond Vengadam if people’s cultural habits and practices are in one form, they may be slightly different but not opposite to us. he talks about India’s oneness.” She said, although Kanimozhi may not be speaking separatist language, separatism influences the kind of language with which Kanimozhi tells the Prime Minister to read the Silappadikaram. 

On The Question Of Draupadi

Nirmala Sitharaman pointed out that Kanimozhi made reference to Draupadi from the Mahabharata, highlighting her humiliation and disrobing. While acknowledging it, Sitharaman said, it is about women, the act of disrobing, demeaning, and disgracing women. She said everyone must regard this matter with utmost seriousness and that she was confident that Kanimozhi too holds this concern, and didn’t intend to undermine it. She concurred that her concern was valid and that when it comes to the suffering of women, regardless of the context, we must address it earnestly without resorting to playing politics. However, she said, she wanted to remind Kanimozhi and the entire assembly of a particular incident.

“I agree that women suffering anywhere – Manipur, Delhi, Rajasthan – will have to be taken seriously. No politics played. But I want to remind this entire House of one incident which happened on 25th March 1989 in Tamil Nadu Assembly. a sacred sabha. then she hadn’t become CM, she was the leader of the Opposition, the first woman. Jayalalithaa’s saree was pulled in Tamil Nadu in the Assembly. She was the Leader of the Opposition. The DMK members who were seated there heckled her and laughed at her, made of her. You’re talking of Kaurava sabha, of Draupadi? Has DMK forgotten Jayalalithaa? You pulled her saree, you demeaned her. That day Jayalalithaa took an oath that she will never come to the House unless she becomes the CM. Two years later, she returned as the CM of Tamil Nadu…” Sitharaman said it was unbelievable that a party that was in power at that time, where a leader of the Opposition had her saree pulled and demeaned, was talking about Draupadi when all the members were mute spectators of the injustice happening to J Jayalalithaa. 

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