A gathering with deeper intentions

Chief Minister MK Stalin held a rally in Chennai on 10 May 2025 to express solidarity with the Indian Armed Forces. |Picture source: M. Vedhan

lMK Stalin was one of the first chief ministers to praise the military operations when the Indian Defense Forces launched a terrorist cyber operation in Pakistan during Ast Week. He made it clear that Tamil Nadu and Indian troops were unwavering in the fight against terrorism.

Two days later, Mr. Stalin announced plans to hold a solidarity rally in Chennai. “This is a time to unite and express our support for the Indian army, and a time to face repeated violations of terrorism in Pakistan,” he declared.

Even the chief ministers belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did not wear patriotism as clearly as Mr. Stalin and expressed support for the armed forces with the support of the public, especially when it was too early to judge whether military operations would escalate into war. However, when Mr Stalin finished Saturday night in Chennai’s sultry 3.8 km in March, he announced a ceasefire by sending flowers to portraits of fallen soldiers and to the victims of the Pahalgam attack on April 22.

Mr Stalin’s bill, which included him carrying the Indian flag at the beginning and end of the rally, may have achieved a deeper, fundamental intention–elimination of the label of Dravida Munatra Kasagam (DMK) was the “Secessors” party. Although it had abandoned the need for “Dravida Nadu (an independent Dravida Nadu) during the 1962 Chinese invasion and shared important periods in the center (1989-90, 1999-2003 and March 2004 2013), the DMK has long been ongoing this label. Critics usually attacked the label when the party advocates state autonomy, a stronger federalism, or adopts powerful symbolic gestures. For example, two months ago, when the Stalin government replaced the Indian currency symbol “” in its budget document with Tamil Alphabet Roo. Sitharaman severely condemned the Indian currency symbol as “more than just symbolic.” She argued that this marked a dangerous mentality that “destroyed India’s unification and promoted separatist sentiment under the guise of regional pride. “She believes this is an “completely avoidable” example of “linguistic and regional chauvinism.”

Mr Stalin, who had approved the Tamil logo in the promotional materials for the budget, defended the move as a statement of his government’s confidence in state language policy. Although promoting Hindi is often constituted by its supporters’ actions as national integration, Tamil Nadu’s opposition to Hindi is seen as Tamil chauvinism.

In the past, DMK faced similar charges. When the current Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi established the PV Rajamannar Committee in 1969 to study the relationship between the center, he had to clarify that the demand for larger state powers is not a call for division. Even after the Commission’s report was released in 1971, he reiterated that the goal was not to face the center. Similarly, when Mr Stalin recently announced the establishment of the Kurian Joseph committee to strengthen national autonomy and federalism, the BJP doubted it with skepticism.

The Stalin government strongly opposed the national education policy, the terms of the PM Shri plan, the trilingual policy and the proposed demarcation were all regarded as autonomy by the “nationalists”. In this case, his decision to move in solidarity on any objection to the “anti-national” brand or reasoning of the rapid brand may be a carefully considered balancing act.

Despite his tense relationship with Chief Minister RN Ravi, he endorsed Mr Stalin’s rally. He thanked the Chief Minister for organizing the rally, calling it a “clear unity of our 80 million Tamil Nadu people” with the expression of the Indian armed forces. Mr. Ravi has previously criticized “too much pressure on federalism” and infamously claimed: “Unfortunately in Tamil Nadu there has been a return to politics “we are Dravids”… Over the past half century, all efforts have been created to strengthen this narrative to strengthen “we are not part of the country…”…”

Mr Stalin’s rally is now a strategic focus for critics who DMK questioned its commitment to the cause of nationalism.