With a brute ma­jor­ity in Par­lia­ment, the Bharatiya Janata Party is in a grand hurry to foist its di­vi­sive agenda and po­lit­i­cal tac­tics across the coun­try. While an­nounc­ing its new cab­i­net, the Naren­dra Modi gov­ern­ment de­clared the home ad­dress of Union Min­is­ter of State for Fish­eries L Mu­ru­gan as Kongu Nadu, Tamil Nadu -an imag­i­nary land. Sow­ing the seeds of bi­fur­ca­tion of Tamil Nadu on the ba­sis of caste and re­gional strength of the BJP in the last two elec­tions, this pro­posal has stirred the pol­i­tics of Tamil Nadu. Tamil na­tion­al­ist party Naam Tami­lar Katchi leader Sen­thamizhan See­man, in his sharp re­ac­tion, has said, “You are play­ing with fire. No­body has asked any­thing like this in Tamil Nadu. If you are go­ing to thrust this down our throats, let it be known that the day is not far when we will seek “bi­fur­ca­tion of In­dia.” Con­sid­er­ing the high pro­file de­bate on the sub­ject, WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh spoke to See­man to un­der­stand the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of the BJP stand.

CATCH­ING UP WITH NAAM TAMI­LAR KATCHI LEADER SEN­THAMIZHAN SEE­MAN, whose party emerged as the third-largest party in the re­cently con­cluded Tamil Nadu As­sem­bly polls, brings to fore his fire­brand im­age and his de­ter­mi­na­tion to the cause of Tamil na­tion­al­ism in an un­mis­tak­able and un­equiv­o­cal man­ner.

The dis­cern­ing reader can eas­ily see the mis­chief that is brows­ing in the dirty-tricks cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally the All In­dia Anna Dravida Munnetra Kaza­gham.  The area of Tamil Nadu cho­sen by the BJP as part of its sin­is­ter plan is dom­i­nated by Other Back­ward Classes -OBCs and in­cludes the dis­tricts of Nil­giris, Coim­bat­ore, Tirupur, Erode, Karur, Na­makkal and Salem, as well as Odd­an­cha­tram and Vedasan­dur in Dindigul dis­trict, and Pap­pired­di­patti in Dharma­puri dis­trict.  It is from this area that BJP won two seats in the In­dian Par­lia­ment in al­liance with the AIADMK. It is called Kongu Nadu.

Ex­tracts from the On­line In­ter­view of Naam Tami­lar Katchi chief co­or­di­na­tor Sen­thamizhan See­man by WSN ed­i­tor Jag­mo­han Singh.

Jag­mo­han Singh:  Van­nakam Anna See­man! How do you see this con­tro­versy over the for­ma­tion of ‘Kongu Nadu’ by bi­fur­cat­ing Tamil Nadu?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  Vanakkam Jag­mo­han Singh. Thank you for your in­ter­est in Tamil af­fairs. Let me ask them, “Who are you to di­vide us? First of all, is In­dia your coun­try? You moved in here. We were born and raised here. What is the root of your lin­eage? Just be­cause you have a brute ma­jor­ity you will do any­thing. If you di­vide Tamil Nadu, we will show you, who we are.”

Jag­mo­han Singh: How would you counter the gov­ern­men­t’s move?
Sen­thamizhan See­man: We have many real de­mands which are still un­ful­filled. Re­trieve Katchatheevu and make it a part of Tamil Nadu.  The state of Tamil Nadu must get its full share of wa­ters from the Cau­very River. Our right to  Get us our share of wa­ter from the Cau­very River. Up­hold our right on Mul­laperi­yar.  Im­me­di­ately stop the Kar­nataka gov­ern­ment from build­ing the Meke­datu dam.

Jag­mo­han Singh: The BJP gov­ern­ment is go­ing all out to foist Hindi on non-Hindi speak­ing states. What is your re­sponse?
Sen­thamizhan See­man: The im­po­si­tion of Hindi will not be tol­er­ated. We are work­ing to­wards ac­cess­ing ed­u­ca­tion in our mother tongue -Tamil, which is more an­cient than San­skrit.

Jag­mo­han Singh: Do you think that the fed­eral re­la­tions be­tween the state and Union gov­ern­ment have been strained?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  I fully en­dorse the DMK’s stand to call the gov­ern­ment in Delhi as the Union gov­ern­ment –On­driya Arasu rather than Cen­tral gov­ern­ment –Mad­hiya Arasu. In­dia con­sti­tu­tion­ally is a Union of states and if the cen­tre cre­ates dishar­mony by de­stroy­ing the fed­eral char­ac­ter of gov­er­nance, there will be se­ri­ous con­se­quences.  To be­gin with, why are the states not be­ing given their share of the GST? Why was there gross dis­crim­i­na­tion in the al­lo­ca­tion of Oxy­gen and Vac­cines to Tamil Nadu?

I fully en­dorse the DMK’s stand to call the gov­ern­ment in Delhi as the Union gov­ern­ment –On­driya Arasu rather than Cen­tral gov­ern­ment –Mad­hiya Arasu. 

See­man, Chief Co­or­di­na­tor, Naam Tami­lar Katchi

Jag­mo­han Singh: Has any­one sought such a di­vi­sion as is be­ing talked about now? BJP state gen­eral sec­re­tary Karu Na­gara­jan has said that “this is the first stage.”
Sen­thamizhan See­man: No­body has ever asked any­thing like this. Tamil Nadu has many ad­min­is­tra­tive prob­lems. Fix them first.  The split of sev­eral dis­tricts for ad­min­is­tra­tive con­ve­nience is still a con­cern. Have we ever asked any­one to di­vide our state into two? So far most states in In­dia have been de­mar­cated on lin­guis­tic lines. If the BJP thinks that this is the first state, the last stage will be pretty se­ri­ous for the party and the coun­try.

Jag­mo­han Singh: How do you see this pro­posed caste-based bi­fur­ca­tion of Tamil Nadu?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  How can one ac­cept a caste-based di­vi­sion?  This is a dis­as­trous po­lit­i­cal move, which will de­stroy the so­cial fab­ric of Tamil Nadu. 

Jag­mo­han Singh: Would you pro­pose any ad­min­is­tra­tive re­form as an al­ter­na­tive?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  In­stead of di­vid­ing Tamil Nadu into two, cre­ate four new cap­i­tals -Salem, Madu­rai, Trichy, and Kanyaku­mari. Putting it all to­gether in one place -Chen­nai puts un­due pres­sure on a city. Cap­i­tals should be di­vided and this has been en­dorsed by Ja­gan Mo­han Reddy and Mamta Baner­jee.

Jag­mo­han Singh: BJP in­sists that Tamil Nadu will be di­vided into two. Your call?Sen­thamizhan See­man:  Let me show them how to di­vide. The In­dian Union can be di­vided into 36 coun­tries. This will bring peace, pros­per­ity and progress and also sat­isfy the as­pi­ra­tion of re­gional and na­tional iden­ti­ties.

Jag­mo­han Singh:  Some sec­tions of the BJP have de­nied this move but in the same breath have talked about the bi­fur­ca­tion of Andhra Pradesh, Ut­tar Pradesh and Kash­mir.  BJP lead­er­ship also says on the sly, “If we pur­sue this, no­body can stop us.” What would you say?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  If the BJP is a just gov­ern­ment, it should di­vide In­dia into two, not Tamil Nadu. Di­vide In­dia into two parts: North In­dia and South In­dia like North Ko­rea and South Ko­rea, East Timor and West Timor; cre­ate two par­lia­ments. If the BJP thinks it will come to power if Kongu Nadu is es­tab­lished as a sep­a­rate state, let them know that even if the Kongu belt is di­vided into six parts, still they do not have any chance. 

 If the BJP is a just gov­ern­ment, it should di­vide In­dia into two, not Tamil Nadu. Di­vide In­dia into two parts: North In­dia and South In­dia like North Ko­rea and South Ko­rea, East Timor and West Timor; cre­ate two par­lia­ments.

Jag­mo­han Singh:  What is your view of the fight be­tween Aryan and Tamil he­roes?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  The BJP has been ad­vo­cat­ing that ‘Ra­ma’s Bridge should be de­clared a na­tional sym­bol’. You are wel­come to do that, but then you need to tell the Tamils, “Why did Rama come here? Why did he build a bridge to Lanka?  They must un­der­stand that Ra­vana is the great king of Tamils. He ruled the Tamil na­tion -Sri Lanka. In­stead of de­clar­ing Ra­ma’s bridge as the na­tional sym­bol of In­dia, it is time to de­clare Sri Lanka as the Tamil na­tion.  The mo­ment I tell the harsh truth like this, they turn silent. If they trou­ble Tamil Nadu again in any move, I will not hes­i­tate in re­it­er­at­ing these facts -loudly and cat­e­gor­i­cally.

Jag­mo­han Singh:  At the mo­ment there are mixed voices, which is the typ­i­cal BJP way of ini­ti­at­ing such dras­tic and sin­is­ter moves. Should the BJP start a cam­paign on this, what will your party Naam Tami­lar Katchi do?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  If the BJP pur­sues their nasty dream, then I will start voic­ing for bi­fur­ca­tion and di­vi­sion of In­dia. I will fight more ve­he­mently than them. I am cer­tain that there are many across the coun­try who will join this cam­paign once I set the ball rolling.  They are wait­ing for some­one to put the cat among the pi­geons. I am con­fi­dent that once I start, it will gather mo­men­tum and be­come a  mass peo­ples’ ag­i­ta­tion.

Jag­mo­han Singh: You re­cently talked about Arunachal Pradesh. Can you elab­o­rate
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  It will be in­ter­est­ing to see the In­dian Prime Min­is­ter and the Bharatiya Janata Party talk­ing about Arunachal Pradesh.  Does Arunachal Pradesh be­long to In­dia or China?  Why do In­dian par­ties cam­paign only on the side­lines of Arunachal Pradesh rather than the north­ern part of the state?

Jag­mo­han Singh: What do you think of Kash­mir where the gov­ern­ment of In­dia is mak­ing moves at de­lim­i­ta­tion to usher in an elec­toral process?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  The gov­ern­ment of In­dia must re­lease all po­lit­i­cal pris­on­ers of Kash­mir. The full state­hood of Kash­mir must be re­stored. The as­pi­ra­tions of the peo­ple there have been crushed with the large pres­ence of the In­dian army there. No po­lit­i­cal process will suc­ceed with­out tak­ing into con­fi­dence the en­tire pop­u­la­tion of the state. 

Jag­mo­han Singh: What is your mes­sage to the new Union Min­is­ter of State for Fish­ers L Mu­ru­gan, who is at the heart of this con­tro­versy and who hails from Tamil Nadu?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  God has given Mu­ru­gan the op­por­tu­nity to serve the peo­ple of Tamil Nadu and the coun­try. He should en­sure that Tamil fish­er­folk are not ob­structed, ha­rassed and im­pris­oned by the Sri Lankan army when they go fish­ing in the In­dian Ocean.  The Indo-Sri Lankan Fish­ing dis­pute must be re­solved, keep­ing in view the de­mands of the Tamil fish­er­men and fish­er­women. 

Jag­mo­han Singh: What do you want to tell Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi?
Sen­thamizhan See­man:  Shall I ini­ti­ate the move for bi­fur­ca­tion of In­dia or will you nip in the bud this evil talk of bi­fur­ca­tion of Tamil Nadu?