What's Cooking in Tamil Nadu?

It appears that Stalin is trying something similar, and given that unlike in Bengal, Tamil Nadu has a strong history of anti-Hindi movement, he seems to be hoping to revive those sentiments. But then this is the 21st century and unless and until there is a strong emotive issue related to language and identity, it's always matters of development that take precedence over other issues for voters.

- JOYEETA BASU

Why is Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin sounding increasingly desperate? With each passing day, his comments and actions are getting more and more outrageous, divisive and bordering on separatism. First, there was his opposition—still continuing—to the New Education Policy because of the three-language rule. Then he used the Tamil script to represent the symbol, saying the latter was derived from Sanskrit, even though it had been designed by an artist from Tamil Nadu. He has also been trying to build a united Dravida/southern front against the Centre on the issue of delimitation, an issue that should be a matter of debate. But it gets problematic when Stalin tries to position the so-called Dravida states as a rival to the Hindi-speaking states on this matter. The question here is, how badly is the DMK doing ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections that Stalin's rhetoric is becoming so shrill? The attempt seems to be to whip up anti-North India/Hindi passions and rally round the Tamil population on the issue of identity and ensure that they vote for the DMK.