Leaders of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance on Sunday said no one could bifurcate Tamil Nadu, even as second-line office-bearers of the BJP remained divided on speculative reports that the Centre planned to convert the western districts into a ‘Kongu Nadu Union Territory’.
“No one can divide Tamil Nadu or even dream of such a thing. Don’t worry,” DMK leader Kanimozhi told journalists, responding to a report in a Tamil daily, claiming that the Centre had such a plan.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri said such reports were the BJP’s tactic to divert the people’s attention from its failures on the economic and social fronts and its mismanagement of COVID-19.
Mr. Alagiri told The Hindu that the BJP had crafted a “planned, but wrong marketing gimmick” that would fizzle out after a few days of debate in the public sphere.
Adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was facing dissent from within the BJP and the RSS, he said the development had a role in raking up “such separatist sentiments”. “Unlike Telangana, no one has asked for any separation within Tamil Nadu. The Telangana region was under-developed. The Kongu Nadu region is a well- developed one. Why would anyone split a well-developed region?” he asked.
Within the BJP, however, there is division on the issue.
BJP State general secretary K. Nagarajan said the proposal was in the initial stages and the people of the Kongu region wanted its creation. “There are parties like the Kongu Nadu Desiya Makkal Katchi. Even [PMK leader] S. Ramadoss has spoken about the creation of regions such as Kongu Nadu,” he said, adding that the government must listen to the people’s wishes and fulfil them.
However, in Tiruppur, party State treasurer S.R. Sekhar said the BJP did not have any such proposals “for now”. He told journalists that the party’s State high-level committee would convene to decide on the issue, which at present was “only a newspaper report”.
Members of the MDMK and the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam staged demonstrations in Coimbatore, condemning the reported proposal, and demanded a clarification from the Union government.
‘Mischievous voices’
Amma Makka Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary T.T.V. Dhinakaran called upon the Union and State governments to nip in the bud the “mischievous voices” in support of the bifurcation of Tamil Nadu.
In a series of tweets, he said the idea of dividing the State on caste lines would never be allowed, when there was no such demand from any section of the people. Any move based on caste would be “greatly detrimental” to the Tamils, as the State had suffered heavily from the re-organisation of States on linguistic lines. It would be “intelligent” to pursue the path of development, he said.
(With inputs
from R. Akileish)
