Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan seems to have done an 'own goal' in Tamil Nadu (TN). In his aggressive baiting of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Parliament, the education minister has veritably gifted TN Chief Minister MK Stalin the ‘Tamil Asmita’ issue — à la Narendra Modi’s old ‘Gujarati Asmita’ — as a poll plank.
The BJP-DMK slugfest over the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 had already stirred the poll pot in the state, which goes to polls next year. Pradhan’s lashing out at DMK MPs by calling their behaviour “uncivilised” has brought the pot to boil.
The DMK has since latched on to Pradhan’s excessive aggression to seek his resignation for hurting ‘Tamil pride’.
Union Minister for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman tried turning the table against DMK in Rajya Sabha by accusing them of “hypocrisy” but the salvo wasn't enough to salvage the situation.
The BJP’s foray into TN's politics had so far been standing on the twin legs of Prime Minister Modi shining a spotlight on Tamil heritage and the spearheading of temple revivalism in the state. The controversy seems to have become a roadblock to the party's fumbling footsteps in the land of Dravidian politics.
Pradhan No Shah
BJP observers have long noted that Pradhan models his aggressive body language and oratorial combativeness in debates on the lines of Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah.
Similarities in style, histrionics, and provocativeness notwithstanding, Pradhan is yet to develop Shah's adroitness and political acumen.
It was thus not surprising that he ended up expressing his regrets for purportedly calling the DMK MPs “uncivilised”. By then, though, the damage had been done.
Video clips of Pradhan's remarks have since become viral in TN, arming the DMK arsenals with fresh ammo against the BJP. Last year, Pradhan had launched himself with similar combativeness to dismiss claims of irregularities in the NEET-UG examination. But the Supreme Court later found merits in the allegations to order re-examination at some of the centres.
The BJP is known never to admit lapses on part of its party leaders. But the leadership in due course has been seen to punish such lapses.
Pradhan’s miscalculations in Parliament are not likely to go unnoticed and the timing couldn't have been worse. The controversy may dim the spotlight on Pradhan at a crucial time when the BJP is mulling over its options for the party's new President.
Delimitation Blues
Pradhan's flippant 'giveaway' of the 'Tamil pride' plank to the DMK has left left BJP leaders based in TN grumbling as well. They had already been toiling hard to face the DMK offensives on delimitation.
Shah tried to reasure Coimbatore when he said that TN would not face any loss of strength in the Lok Sabha after the delimitation. His stance has been conciliatory and focused instead on how the DMK had been indulging in distracting attention from the governance issues.
But Stalin has sensed that delimitation is going to be a key part of DMK's electoral onslaught on the BJP and has moved to cement his position ahead of the Assembly elections. He has called for a meeting against delimitation on 22 March and is counting on the attendance of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and former Odisha CM Navin Patnaik among others.
Meanwhile, the BJP has focused on the third language debate and low-key temple revivalism). The three-language policy advocated in the NEP 2020 can further create chinks in Dravidian politics. Party leaders argue that the third language could be any language such as Telugu or Kannada which may dent DMK’s Tamil-based politics.
TN Governor RN Ravi has decades of experience negotiating and mediating in hostile territories for debate and discourses. In Nagaland, Ravi brought the Naga rebels to discuss the ambit of the Constitution to address their demands. He digs his heels deep.
As TN Governor, Ravi dials the discourse in against DMK’s key stances. He sits over bills passed by the Assembly and is often seen visiting temples.
These strategic visits have helped bring the spotlight on the BJP’s ‘Sanatan Dharma’ narrative in the state. While Ravi provides symbolic authority, in K Annamalai, the BJP found a street fighter and a flagbearer for its political narrative. This pitch is aimed to force open the Dravidian politics of TN to alternative narratives.
Tamil 'Asmita' May Dent Saffron Foothold in TN
The oft-stated quote in BJP circles is that each election is a preparation for the next one. TN and Kerala along with West Bengal and Tripura constitute the key ideological battlegrounds for the BJP-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) combine. The success in Tripura is whetting the political appetite of the Sangh.
Modi often quotes legendary Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar in his speeches, be it in the United Nations or from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
Even though the BJP was not hopeful of winning Lok Sabha seats, Modi campaigned hard in 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections in TN. The labour bore fruit.
From just a little over three percent in 2019, the BJP improved its vote share in TN to over 11 percent in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It also polled more votes than the Congress in TN in the Lok Sabha elections.
BJP's TN strategy hinges on making incremental gains without inviting Dravidian political blowback from the DMK. This can also be gauged from the party's uncharacteristic lack of retaliation to “Go Back Modi” slogans that trend on social media platforms whenever the Prime Minister visits TN.
While the party doesn’t hope to make big gains in the 2026 TN elections, it has been fanning a low-burning saffron flame that can sustain and warm up to state politics for the next decades. But the flickering saffron flame now faces the roaring fire of ‘Tamil Pride’ along with cold gusts of delimitation wind being blown in its direction by the DMK.
Worse for the BJP is the prospect that a 'Tamil pride-delimitation-polarisation' may put off potential allies such as the AIADMK and others. Pradhan, thus, has put the BJP in a spot with his uncontrolled aggression in Parliament. The BJP will be hoping that the popular memory soon forgets the Pradhan episode.
The BJP will also hope that Sitharaman and others can employ their skills to salvage the situation quickly.
(The author is a senior Delhi-based journalist with over two decades of political journalism spent in The New Indian Express, Deccan Chronicle, The Asian Age, and The Statesman. This is an opinion piece. All views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)