SECULAR SUN RISES IN TAMIL NADU!

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The secular sun may have set in West Bengal. However, a new secular sun has arisen in Tamil Nadu with Joseph Vijay with 107 seats emerging as the biggest largest party…

THE godi media seems to be obsessed with the humiliation of Mamata-didi. Not the demise of the land of Rabindranath Tagore. The Hindutva brigade insists it is reclaiming the land of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee to whom a stadium is dedicated to in Goa. Never mind that none of the Bengali icons, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Subhash Chandra Bose and Vivekananda, were Hindutva fanatics.
Indeed, they would have disowned Narendra Modi and his rabid gang of hate-mongers. It is an irony that Narendra Modi, who prides himself on moving the Women’s Reservation Bill, is jubilating over the collapse of the Mamata-didi-led TMC government in West Bengal.
Unlike the godi media we would like to turn the spotlight on Joseph Vijay Chandrashekar who represents the resurrection of secularism in the country as much as in Tamil Nadu. Joseph Vijay who prayed on his knees at the St Anthony Church in Trichy has emerged as the chief minister in waiting in Tamil Nadu. Vijay’s debut victory is significant for a number of reasons. Vijay is a spiritual person who has repeatedly stressed the importance of social welfare linked to a secular India.
In the run up to the elections, Joseph Vijay has been visiting all shrines Hindu, Muslim and Catholic. In his films Vijay has always upheld secular values. With Vijay’s victory Tamil Nadu has returned to god. As is has rejected the atheist Dravida parties DMK and AIDMK. The original Drivada party was Dravida Kazagam which was started by Ramaswamy Periyar. Periyar wanted to liberate Tamils from the tyranny of the Iyers and Iyengars. The DK split when the 70 plus Periyar decided to marry a 14-year-old. The Drivada Muneetera (Forward Kazagam) was headed by N Karunanidhi who was a Tamil screenplay writer who was the brain behind the blockbuster films of MG Ramachandran, the first film star chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
His favorite heroine Jayalalitha hijacked his legacy to take over as Tamil Nadu’s longest serving chief minister. With her Anna DMK which is the origin of ADMK rebel party which broke away from the DMK. In the last elections the DMK returned to power with MK Stalin succeeding his father Karunanidhi.
In the recently concluded elections, Vijay’s new party called the Progressive Tamil Party won 110 out of the 240 seats in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly. Vijay’s VKT demolished both the Drivada parties DMK and the AIDMK. The godi media while talking about the double century of the BJP in West Bengal fails to mention Vijay’s century in Tamil Nadu and the fact that the BJP did not get a single seat in the southern state.
In fact, even in Kerala which delivered a consolation prize to Rahul Gandhi with a United Democratic Front victory gave only three seats to the BJP. The BJP of course is on a high because it apparently now controls 72% of India both in terms of geography and in terms of population. There are new shoots of secularism developing within the turgid saffron ocean which the BJP has converted the country into.
Vijay’s success is all the more outstanding as he is the only Christian chief minister outside of the northeast and Goa. Joseph Vijay’s mother Sudha, a playback singer, is a practicing Christian very devoted to our Lady of Health at Valankkani. On the social media there are pictures of Joseph Vijay kneeling in worship at the St Anthony Church at Trichy. Vijay also visited the dargah at Trichy.
There’s a Goa connection to the emergence of the Christian chief minister and indeed Christianity in Tamil Nadu. It is not widely known that Kanya Kumari has a 50% Catholic population. It was in the Kanya Kumari coastal belt that St Francis Xavier spent considerable time with the “paravas” (the pearl fishers of Kanya Kumari). Those diving into the sea in search of oysters wanted protection against the Arab traders who were harassing them, so much so they welcomed Francis Xavier and the Portuguese who offered them a better deal. Tamil Nadu has more than 50 lakh Christians most of whom are Catholics. Legend has it that as early as the 3rd century St Thomas, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ, visited today’s Chennai. The St Thomas Cathedral still stands witness to the visit of the apostle .

FAITH IN GENERATION Z
THE victory of Joseph Vijay also offers a lot of hope for all the secular forces in Goa and the rest of the country. We should follow Vijay’s example of putting his faith in generation Z. This is the generation which is still under 25 years of age. Generation Z accounted for over 50 lakh voters in Tamil Nadu. Vijay focused on generation Z and the 55% women voters population in Tamil Nadu. In his films Vijay has always projected himself as the protector and patron of young people, as dramatized in his Master series. Vijay plays a school teacher-cum- big brother in the Master series of films where he is the hero.
Vijay ignored the DMK controlled Tamil print and electronic media in Tamil Nadu. The electronic media in Tamil Nadu is dominated by the DMK leaders. Vijay decided that the 5.5 inch mobile screen can be as effective as a huge LED screen of televisions. Vijay launched a blitzkrieg on social media with the recurring theme of children asking their parents and their grandparents to vote for Vijay anna (brother Vijay). This proved to be incredibly successful with Vijay winning 110 seats in the 240 member Tamil Nadu assembly in his very first election. Vijay is seen as the angry young man who fights for the underdog. Amongst the stories about him which have gone viral is his educating his driver’s son. Vijay paid for his education from kindergarten to a Bachelor’s in technology from the IIT Madras. The crowning glory is that Vijay gave him a ticket to contest the elections. The driver’s son is amongst the candidates who won the election.
The media can take heart from the defeat and the humiliation of the BJP in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Karnataka and Telangana are already ruled by the Congress. The BJP has yet to conquer the north completely as the Aam Aadmi Party still controls Punjab. But with the success of Operation Lotus in West Bengal and the defection of Raghu Chadda, Punjab may yet get saffronized.
The BJP has demolished all the regional satraps starting with Nitish Kumar in Bihar and culminating in Mamata-didi in West Bengal. The south with its opposition to Hindi and Hindutva is holding the fort. Hopefully, Goa will find a new savior before the assembly elections early next year.