As the country gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the political discourse in Tamil Nadu is highly polarised. An opinion on any issue in the news is expected to be in favour of either the Hindutva ideology or the Dravidian ideology; a middle path is viewed with suspicion from those on both sides of the divide. Personal attacks have been taking place frequently. Leaders long gone have been dragged into debates to prove a point. People keep attempting to find out whether the narrative of their rivals is shaped by caste and/or religion. Leaders who remain silent and organisations which refuse to take any stand on an issue are branded as the ‘B team’ or ‘sleeper cell’ of their political rivals. When an issue triggers a debate, leaders and their supporters form teams and launch a no-holds-barred attack on those holding a different point of view.
The debate over Sanatana Dharma is a case in point. The subject continues to dominate political talk. On the one side are Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, his son Udhayanidhi Stalin, and party ideologues, and on the other side is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliates.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has every reason to worry about another victory for the BJP at the national level in the Lok Sabha elections even if the INDIA bloc, led by it, manages to sweep the polls in Tamil Nadu. The DMK leadership knows that the only way to prevent such an outcome is to indulge in an ideological war against the BJP. This may gain some acceptance in the State, but it will not be adequate to win elections at the national level. The DMK wants to project that the BJP, for all its posturing, represents the interests of upper-caste Hindus and that its core ideology stems from Sanatana Dharma and the Manu Smriti.
