DMK should intensify its fight against BJP-fostered communalism, says Vaiko

Vaiko urges DMK to intensify its fight against BJP-led communalism to protect India's secular identity.

MDMK general secretary Vaiko on Saturday said the DMK, which was leading Tamil Nadu’s crusade against communalism, should intensify the fight to stop India from being transformed from a ‘secular state’ into a ‘communal nation’ by the BJP.

Speaking to reporters at Palayamkottai, Mr. Vaiko said the BJP, which was relatively tolerable when Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani were its faces, was working overtime to paint India in religious colour after it came to power at the Centre in 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tried to impart ‘RSS training’ to all government employees when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and Home Minister Amit Shah were the BJP’s faces now.

The recent order mandating the singing of Vande Mataram in all schools, colleges and government functions, even though it blatantly praised Hindu goddesses in a secular country, was the more visible attempt towards that direction.

“India will be rechristened Bharat as being desired by the RSS. The non-Hindu residents of India will be denied their democratic voting right first and then their citizenship itself. The national capital will be shifted from New Delhi to Varanasi. The BJP has already started its work to achieve the goals. Hence, the DMK leading Tamil Nadu’s fight against communalism should continue and intensify the crusade,” said Mr. Vaiko.

He appealed to all secular forces to join this battle.

Recalling his prolonged fight against Sterlite Copper that led to its closure following legal intervention, he appealed to the Tamil Nadu Government to thwart the company’s major’s attempts to re-open its unit in the guise of ‘green copper’ through legal remedy while mobilising an ‘influenced crowd’ in Thoothukudi in support of the demand.