Just because BJP nominated her, the newly elected President Droupadi Murmu is being abused despite the fact that she is a woman and from a vanvasi community. DMK’s ally has abused her calling her as a circus tiger, caged parrot and temple elephant. Not liking the prospect of Hindus coming together despite differences, he termed Murumu’s nomination as an attempt to stop conversion activities.
“Conversion of Dalits and tribals happens every day. Every day 1000, 2000 of them go towards Yesappa. 10, 20 of them embrace Islam. Conversion is rapid among Dalits and tribals only. To arrest conversion, they are using Ambedkar and Dalits strategically. But their real enemy is Ambedkar. He is the real enemy of BJP and RSS because the constitution written by him is their main enemy. But they don’t say that openly. They cannot oppose Ambedkar like they oppose Periyar.”
In another event, he denigrated her by calling her a circus tiger dancing to the tunes of BJP. “If BJP announces that the constitution is invalid and brings in Manu Smriti, Draupadi will blindly sign the legislation. She will not reject it or oppose it”. Despite identifying his party as a ‘Dalit’ party on many occasions, he said “Our politics is not based on caste but policy” and cited it as the reason for not voting in favour of Draupadi Murmu.
DMK, VCK and other Dravidian parties have the habit of connecting everything with Brahmins. They have called the Supreme Court ‘Uchi Kudumi Court’ meaning ‘Tuft Court’, implying that it is controlled by Brahmins when they get unfavourable judgments. On many occasions, they dug out or merely assumed judges’ castes as Brahmin and abused them. But now, Thirumavalavan sees Yashwant Sinha and Mamta Banerjee, both of whom are Brahmins, as ‘rebels’ against the ‘Brahmanical BJP’. It is to be noted that he had proposed for a Christian candidate to be nominated for the presidential election by the UPA alliance.
Thirumavalavan lamented that even though he wanted to vote for a woman and a ‘tribal’ at that, he couldn’t as she would act as the puppet of the BJP. The likes of Thirumavalavan have been crying that vanvasis are the “indigenous people” of Bharat, different from Hindus and that BJP and RSS are trying to destroy their traditions. Conversion to Abrahamic faiths results in the loss of these traditions. But Thirumavalavan and his ilk are not worried about that. They are rather worried that a vanvasi becoming the country’s first citizen will be an obstacle to conversion.
This shows their real agenda and who they are really worried about. He recently said that Sanatana forces would be vanquished forever if Congress is supported at the national level and Karnataka ex-CM Siddaramaiah becomes Prime Minister. It should be noted that Christian priests also have the same line of thought, and one expressed fear that with opposition collapsing like a pack of cards, BJP appears as a formidable enemy. He requested a Christian DMK MLA to unite the opposition by making parties from Kashmir to Kanyakumari join as a single force against BJP.
To understand the kind of clout Christians and the church hold in DMK and its government, one needs to see the kind of remarks made by influential leaders of the party. In 2021, soon after DMK assumed power, a Catholic priest in Kanyakumari said that DMK coming to power was alms provided by the Christian community. The DMK government didn’t dare to touch him until Hindu outfits staged protests and filed multiple complaints against him for denigrating Hindu beliefs and deities.
There was not even a peep from DMK about this insult. Instead, influential people, including the CM, started agreeing with him in Christian events. Dairy Development minister SM.Nasar, who attended an event organised by AG Church, said, “DMK has come to power because of the power of the prayers of the Christian community”. In the event celebrating the 70th Foundation Day of the church of South India, CM MK Stalin said, “This government was formed because of you”.
Recently the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu Appavu said in a Catholic Seminary event that, “Christian institutions are the most important reason behind TN topping the field of education. It is your toiling..if not for you, Fathers, Sisters and Brothers, TN would have been a Bihar. Above all this if I’m to tell the truth it was Catholic priests and nuns who moulded me and brought me to this position. Why, even this government as I tell often, this government was installed by you and your fasting. It was brought by your prayers to God. This government is yours”.
This should show why DMK and its allies, including the church, are rattled by the election of President Draupadi Murmu. It is time that such wolves in sheep’s clothing supposedly working for the marginalised and vanvasi communities are questioned.
