For a political party that had never been at the helm of state affairs or ever sat in the Opposition, organising a mammoth conference of a magnitude that could suit the budget and manpower resources of either a ruling party or principal opposition party, is unique and a remarkable achievement for a party like the BJP in Tamil Nadu.
Despite its national outlook, the party has been dwarfed by the Dravidian parties and never been successful in having its voice heard in the Assembly.
The TN BJP was represented in the Assembly in 1996 when C. Velayuthan won from Padmanabhapuram and Pon. Radhakrishnan was the face of Tamil Nadu in the Lok Sabha in 1999. Since then the saffron party has been struggling to make it to the Assembly or Parliament. The reason: the state unit always thought that the national outlook could work wonders.
This time, the saffron party has decided to take on regional issues. Describing Dravidianism as a myth created by DMK leader Karunanidhi to gain political mileage, BJP national executive member L. Ganesan at the BJP conference in Madurai said, “Dravidian refers to geographical area not any race and Aryan signifies qualities of a person.” Going hammer and tongs at the DMK, he said the ‘Dravidian’ theory was not accepted by the neighbouring states.
Wondering why Mr Karunanidhi did not organise Dravidian language conference outside Tamil Nadu, Mr Ganesan urged the people not to believe the depiction of Dravidians by Mr Karunanidhi. “Aryan does not mean north Indian. It refers to traits. Lord Ram was called Aryan due to his qualities and, interestingly, Ravana’s wife addressed her husband as ‘Arya putra’,” he emphasised.
Party president Pon. Radhakrishnan, who adopted a new strategy to bat for Tamil language, went soft on CM J. Jayalalithaa. “She was instrumental in ensuring massive security for our Thamarai Sangamam,” he said.