Chennai: Hoping to construct up the ‘Modi issue’ in Tamil Nadu forward of subsequent 12 months’s Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) plans to take at the very least 3,000 individuals from the state to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dwelling state Gujarat subsequent month for a “cultural alternate programme”.
The 10-day Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam (STS) goals to showcase the “age-old ties” between the 2 states in addition to Modi’s ‘Gujarat mannequin’ to the individuals of Tamil Nadu, the place the Modi issue had did not work for the BJP in 2019 regardless of a landslide victory throughout the nation.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) had gained 37 of the 38 parliamentary constituencies within the state, with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-BJP alliance going through a rout.
The STS is the second such programme underneath the Modi authorities’s ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ initiative. The first one was the ‘Kashi Tamil Sangamam’, a month-long occasion held final 12 months to “rediscover” hyperlinks between Varanasi and Tamil Nadu.
Being held in Gujarat between 17 and 26 April this 12 months, the STS has been deliberate by Nationwide Institute of Know-how, Tiruchirappalli, and Saurashtra College in Rajkot, and is being facilitated by the Gujarat authorities.
Throughout this era, day-after-day a practice with 288 delegates — together with youth, college students, lecturers, entrepreneurs, professionals, and cultural specialists, amongst others — will journey to Gujarat, the place they are going to be proven the state’s infrastructure prowess and tourism growth.
“You’ll expertise what Modiji has carried out in Gujarat. Through the Kashi Tamil Sangamam, individuals witnessed the infrastructure growth of the town, the clear Ganga mission, and way more. Now, too, they are going to witness and expertise the Modi mannequin of growth,” Amar Prasad Reddy, BJP state convenor for Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat, mentioned.
Tamil Nadu additionally has a major Saurashtrian group, notably within the Madurai area.
Chatting with ThePrint, A.S. Panneerselvan, creator and fellow at Chennai’s Roja Muthiah Analysis Library, mentioned: “STS is a method of reaching out to the Saurashtrian group, which is built-in with Tamil consciousness. In 12 wards of Madurai district, the Saurashtrian inhabitants decides the result of elections.”
Initially from the Gujarat area, the Saurashtrian group now principally resides within the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. Their migration to the southern components of the nation is believed to be primarily a results of the desecration of the Somnath Temple, their non secular centre, by Mahmud Ghazni in 1024.
Political observers add that the current outreach workouts by the BJP are possible being carried out retaining in thoughts not simply the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but additionally the upcoming Karnataka state elections. “Karnataka has an honest Tamil inhabitants with tilting energy in an election,” mentioned Panneerselvan, including that the BJP is out to show that it’s not only a north Indian get together.
Moreover, a story of South vs North “rooted in useful resource allocation issues” makes a lot of south India unwinnable for the BJP, mentioned Nilakantan R.S., creator and political analyst. “This might be a counter to that,” he added.
DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai, in the meantime, advised ThePrint, that these efforts won’t assist the BJP which performs “divisive politics” to thrive in Tamil Nadu, a state which is named “vantarai vazha vaikkum bhoomi” (a land that presents life to anybody looking for livelihood).
“Sangamams concentrating on Tamil Nadu are solely vote-bank politics. They aren’t being carried out with the intention of propagating the Tamil language,” mentioned Annadurai.
He highlighted the combination of the Saurashtrian group within the state, citing examples such because the famend singer T.M. Soundararajan, recognized for lending his voice to Tamil Thai Vazhthu, the state track. He additionally famous how a number of MPs, MLAs, actors, and literary specialists from the Saurashtrian group have earned a revered place within the state.
“They’re amongst us, so why do that now? It’s an outreach train. And if it’s a authorities occasion, why haven’t they invited the Tamil Nadu authorities to be part of it?” Sarvanan added.
BJP Tamil Nadu vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy, nevertheless, mentioned, “When cultures of two states are being exchanged, how is it politically linked? We need to say that Tamil, probably the most historical language, has connections all through India.”
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The Gujarat-Tamil Nadu connection
Based on V.G. Ramdoss, the founding father of the Sourashtra Chamber of Commerce in Madurai, the Saurashtrian individuals got here to Tamil Nadu from Gujarat following the assault on the Somnath Temple by Mahmud Ghazni someday in 1000-1026 AD.
Based on an article in The Hindu, many Saurashtrians additionally got here to Tamil Nadu within the seventeenth century as royal silk weavers to the Nayak kings. Based on reviews, there are about 25 lakh individuals of Gujarati origin residing in Tamil Nadu and over 12 lakh Saurashtrians within the state with a majority of them settled in Madurai, Thanjavur, and Salem.
Madurai district alone accounts for over 2.5 lakh Saurashtrians, mentioned 67-year-old Ramdoss, who in 2012 had hosted a World Saurashtra meet in Madurai. The occasion had seen participation from over one lakh individuals from throughout the nation.
Based on Saurashtra Tamil Sangamam’s itinerary, every batch of delegates will embark on a two-day practice journey, starting in Madurai and concluding in Somnath. Upon arrival in Somnath, they are going to spend two days visiting the Somnath temple for darshan and take part in an organised tour showcasing the town’s wealthy historic, cultural, and religious landmarks.
On the sixth day, the group will go on a street journey to Dwarka the place a number of temple darshans have been deliberate. On day seven, the group will attain Vadodara by practice and might be taken to Ektanagar by street, the place they are going to see the Statue of Unity, undertake a jungle safari, see the botanical backyard and the town’s diet park, amongst different issues.
Tamil Nadu BJP treasurer S.R. Sekhar mentioned the Dravidian events play on the Tamil regional sentiment just for electoral politics, however the Sangamam occasions are an try and “unite all of the areas and states throughout the nation via languages and through the use of Tamil, probably the most historical language, because the hyperlink language.”
This Tamil outreach “might be the BJP’s concept of viewing India via a single prism whereas the South vs North divide is rising,” mentioned Nilakantan.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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