What prompted DMK and Stalin to suspend their anti-Hindi agitation

On Wednesday, DMK president and Tamil Nadu opposition leader M.K. Stalin walked into the Raj Bhavan to call on Governor Banwarilal Purohit. It was a meeting on invitation, and the political circles in the state were abuzz with various theories about the meeting. The DMK cadres, who were gearing up to organise and take part in a massive anti-Hindi agitation planned for September 20, were waiting to hear from their leader. Stalin, emerging out after a 45-minute long meeting with the governor, drove straight to his party office on Annasalai.

“The governor stressed that Hindi will not be imposed in Tamil Nadu. We asked whether the Centre will confirm this. The governor said he represented the Centre and he was only saying what the Centre had conveyed to him. Thus, based on what the governor and Home Minister Amit Shah have said, we have decided to temporarily postpone the protest,” Stalin clarified to the media.

Hours before his decision to postpone the agitation, more than 20 DMK youth wing cadres were taken into custody in Gudiyatham for protesting against Hindi and blackening Hindi words.

The irony is that Purohit conveyed the message to Stalin in Hindi, which was translated to him, say sources in Raj Bhavan. The message was straight and clear, confirm the sources. The Central government and its leadership did not want any protest to happen in Tamil Nadu for the next one month as the Chinese premier Xi Jinping’s visit and his high-profile meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the banks of Bay of Bengal near Mahabalipuram is viewed as a next step in India’s international relationships.

Sources say that the DMK leader was explained in detail about the Chinese premier's visit and his meeting with Modi scheduled during October in Chennai. He was also briefed on how any protests at this time will send wrong signals in the international circles. Apparently, Stalin was warned about the consequences of holding a protest, including incurring the wrath of the BJP high command in Delhi, say sources.

Sources also said the warning to Stalin has to be viewed also in the context of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Modi on Wednesday.

“To a large extent, the chances are very high for this Chinese theory. In Modi’s scheme of things, especially in foreign affairs, China has a very important place....Modi undertook several visits to China when he was Gujarat chief minister. And unlike other neighbours like Pakistan with whom India has lots of problems, Modi government handles China affairs very smoothly though we have a very long-pending border dispute with China. Given Modi’s policies and character, he will not allow any dissent against his government’s policies in the region where he is meeting. Though this anti-Hindi agitation is happening 20 days before the proposed summit, Modi would not like it. This is because, such a dissent against him will send wrong signals in the international circles and show him in a poor light,” says senior journalist R. Mani.

DMK used Amit Shah’s somersault of sorts on making Hindi the national language as a face saver. Nonetheless, political observers in the state note that the DMK has suffered a setback by postponing the agitation. In fact, in 1938 and later in 1967, students, roused by the Tamil nationalism, took to streets to protest against Hindi, thus pushing the Centre to pass a new law, ensuring continuance of English as administrative language. It may be recalled that the Congress debacle in 1967 in Tamil Nadu was a because of the mishandling of the anti-Hindi agitation.

It may be recalled that the DMK, which went hammer and tongs against the Centre on scrapping of Article 370, later softened its tone. The DMK has, off late, been soft on taking on the ruling AIADMK. The last time that Stalin took strong dig against the ruling government in the state was when Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami left for his foreign trip to the UK and the USA in the end of August. Palaniswami is back in Chennai after his fortnight-long foreign trip and has announced that 41 MoUs to the tune of Rs 8,300 crore were signed. But the DMK, except for demanding a white paper on the foreign investments in Tamil Nadu, doesn’t seem to take up things like a strong opposition does.

Given all these, the ‘temporary’ suspension of agitation on Hindi may well be permanent one.