DMK spokesperson Salem Dharanidharan, who is also the Tamil Nadu state deputy secretary of the DMK IT Wing, submitted his Lok Sabha candidature for Salem at the DMK headquarters recently. He is someone who advocates Dravidian model of governance very strongly and believes that equality and equity should be a hand-in-hand approach to extend opportunities for all. In this exclusive interview with The Daily Guardian, Salem Dharanidharan chats about the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and the political scenario in the state.
Q: Despite DMK’s confidence of pulling off a win in the Lok Sabha elections, the party is plagued by issues of ministers getting arrested, IT raids and so on. Will this impact the outcome?
A: In a democracy, the mandate lies with the people. The people of Tamil Nadu are very happy with the transparent and accountable government we are providing. The people at the grassroot level don’t have problems with the government – everything is being taken care of in terms of public services, etc, and all the election poll promises have been upheld. All the departments in the government are functioning with much better efficiency now than the previous 10 years. Our government is better than the Union Government also. People of Tamil Nadu also understand that this kind of witch-hunt has been happening in all the states where the Opposition is in power. It’s very clear that this is politically motivated.
Q: BJP’s K Annamalai has been constantly stating that BJP will come out on top in the elections.
A: Politics happens at the grassroot level and booth level and not on social media or X (formerly Twitter). BJP plays politics on social media – they don’t have any grassroot level cadres. I don’t see the vote share increasing for the BJP either. In the 2022 municipal elections, the BJP vote-share was around 3 per cent.
Q: But Thanthi TV pre-poll prediction states that BJP vote share will go into double digits.
A: I don’t think so. If you look at 2014, there was a Third Front and its vote share was in double digits. But when BJP contested on its own it didn’t get much vote share.
Q: Sans the BJP, EPS is projecting the AIADMK as a stronger party. Is it going to be a formidable opponent?
A: People are not confident about the AIADMK. They are not sure what it stands for. They feel there is no guarantee that the party will not join hands with the BJP once again because AIADMK is very cautious when it comes to criticising the BJP. Right now, AIADMK is doing politics and this is very obvious to common man – they can read between the lines. AIADMK supported the CAA and because of them NEET came in – the people feel they are opportunists.
Q: Not all poll promises have been fulfilled – the DMK has not been able to get NEET exemption for Tamil Nadu.
A: 99.9 per cent of the people of Tamil Nadu are against the NEET exam. The Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution on this and the Governor was sitting on this and now the President is sitting on the bill. It’s the mandate of the people that gets a government elected and then the Chief Minister forms the cabinet and the cabinet takes a decision based on the decision of the people. The party doesn’t voice its opinion but the opinion of the people. Who is the governor not to give assent to the voice of the people – it is the voice of democracy. We are not in a dictatorship. We launched a signature campaign against NEET and got more than 7 million signatures in the state.
Q: Recently, the Supreme Court pulled up DMK Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin for making the controversial Sanatana dharma comments. Will this have any impact on the elections?
A: BJP is a party that wants to use religion to polarise the people and garner votes. The DMK gives respect to all religions and we believe in equality – between caste, between religions and between genders. That has been the core of Dravidian ideology. I haven’t read what the Supreme Court has said. The Honourable Minister of Sports Udhayanidhi Stalin spoke about equality in society and that everyone was born equal.
Q: DMK leader A Raja stated at an event in Madurai that India was not one nation but a sub-continent and said ‘we’re enemies of Ram’. Is this DMK’s view?
A: The comments made by him are his personal statements; you need to ask why he said that.