Rahul's speech echoes Annadurai's ideas, wins Tamil hearts

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s motion of thanks to the Presidential address in the Parliament on February 1 has evoked a range of emotions across the country. Particularly, in Tamil Nadu, his remarks on cooperative federalism, state rights and issues like NEET have earned him a new set of followers.

“There are two visions of this country. One vision is that it is a union of states, meaning it is a negotiation, meaning it is a conversation, meaning I go to my brother in Tamil Nadu and I say, ‘what do you want?’ and he says, ‘this is what I want’. He then asks me ‘what do you want?’ and I say ‘this is what I want’. It is a partnership –it is not a kingdom. You will never, ever in your entire life, rule over the people of Tamil Nadu. It can’t be done,” said Rahul in his speech.

Moreover, when he came out of Parliament while replying to one of the journalists’ questions on why he spoke about Tamil Nadu, Rahul said, ‘I am also Tamil’. This statement simply won the hearts of the people of Tamil Nadu.

The day after Rahul’s speech happened to be the 53rd death anniversary of CN Annadurai, the DMK founder and the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. This further excited the DMK supporters, who started to compare the Gandhi scion with Annadurai.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin thanked the Congress leader for voicing the concerns of Tamils in the Parliament.

“Dear Rahul Gandhi, I thank you on behalf of all Tamils for your rousing speech in the Parliament, expressing the idea of Indian Constitution in an emphatic manner. You have voiced the long-standing arguments of Tamils in the Parliament, which rest on the unique cultural and political roots that value Self Respect”, he tweeted.

Also read: Centre to pay ₹ 3,000 crore more to Tamil Nadu in tax income

Annadurai on Devaki Gopidas

There were a few dissenting voices, however. A few political leaders felt that Annadurai too had made a similar speech in Parliament in 1962 when he was a Rajya Sabha MP. The Congress regime was at the Centre then.

Pointing out that Rahul was echoing the ideas of Annadurai, he said, “While political observers view Rahul’s speech as a major change in the Congress party’s approach (towards the states), in the past a Congress MP had raised this issue of discrimination faced by states during the Congress regime.”

According to Ravikumar, Annadurai wrote a letter on July 1, 1962. In this letter, he refers to Devaki Gopidas (a Congress Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala between 1962 and 1968), who had spoken in Parliament about how Kerala was being neglected when development plans were charted.

She had “stressed that whenever the development plans are shaped, the (Union) government should take into consideration the state’s uniqueness and its salient features. Otherwise, it (the state) would be a thorn in the path of Indian Union’s growth. This thought came from a person who believes that India should be united and not be divided. She says that if the government did not focus on Kerala’s uniqueness and characters, it would be like a thorn. What do we do with the thorns? We take them out. That is what we do. Whether it is politics or body, we take the thorn out,” wrote Annadurai.

Like how a thorn is removed, Annadurai too wanted discrimination to be rooted out and the special identity of a state should be preserved, said Ravikumar.

“The Congress in the 1930s and 40s were worse than the BJP of today. The Congress then was more communal. Instead of asking what direct benefits Congress will bring to Tamil Nadu in the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi’s speech, we should look at it in a broader perspective and understand that the Congress today has become more rationalistic and democratic. That’s how we should understand his speech,” Ravikumar added.

Senior Congress leader and Tamil Nadu Congress Committee spokesperson Gopanna said that it was Jawaharlal Nehru who first lent an ear to the voice of the minorities.

“It was because of Nehru, the first amendment in the Constitution was made and the reservation came into force. At that time, they did not listen to the majority. He listened to the concerns of Tamil Nadu and the amendment was made. Rahul Gandhi’s speech shows that he is carrying the legacy of Nehru forward,” he said.

Also read: Stalin, Pinarayi join growing list of CMs to protest IAS cadre rules amendment

BJP’s counter narrative, DMK benefits

However, it appears the BJP remains unperturbed by Rahul’s speech. While a large section of Congress supporters and its allies praised Rahul for delivering such a speech sans a teleprompter (which is meant to be a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi) and questioned ‘Who is the Pappu’ now? The BJP leaders continued to make scathing comments about Rahul’s speech.

External Affairs minister S Jaishankar, while countering Rahul’s claim that the government could not bring a guest on Republic Day, said those who live in India know that we are in the midst of a corona wave.

“The five Central Asian Presidents, who were to come, did hold a virtual summit on January 27. Did Rahul Gandhi miss that as well?”, he asked. Also, while responding to the claim that the BJP government has brought Pakistan and China together, Jaishankar said that the two countries were together from the Congress period.

“Perhaps, some history lessons are in order: In 1963, Pakistan illegally handed over the Shaksgam Valley to China. China built the Karakoram highway through PoK in the 1970s. From 1970, the two countries also had close nuclear collaboration. In 2013, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor started. So, ask yourself: were China and Pakistan distant then?” he tweeted.

AIADMK’s former minister D Jayakumar too dismissed Rahul’s speech questioning the basis of his claim to be a ‘Tamil’.

Political commentator Pongalur Manikandan said attacking Rahul Gandhi personally is wrong. But the BJP’s counter-narrative gains credibility when they point to his inability to strengthen his own party.

“Without strengthening his party, this kind of anti-BJP speech does not have any impact on the ground. Across the country, the Congress party in the states, including Tamil Nadu, does not have able leaders like GK Moopanar and it failed to develop such leaders. In every state, the party has inter-party disputes. So forgetting all these drawbacks, when Rahul speaks like this, it will help only the DMK to reap the benefits of his speech. It does not help the Congress in any way,” he said.

And, thereby hangs a tale.