{"id":156142,"date":"2026-05-11T16:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T23:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=156142"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T23:11:19","slug":"first-christian-chief-minister-of-tamil-nadu-replacing-60-years-of-dravidian-politics-but-racist-politics-still-dominates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/05\/11\/first-christian-chief-minister-of-tamil-nadu-replacing-60-years-of-dravidian-politics-but-racist-politics-still-dominates\/","title":{"rendered":"First Christian Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Replacing 60 Years of Dravidian Politics, But Racist Politics Still Dominates"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

After 60 years of continued rule, Dravidian political parties suffered a massive defeat in Tamil Nadu state of India at its state election. DMK, AIADMK and their various offshoots failed to win a sizable number of seats to rule the state. Instead, a newcomer to the political scene \u2013 TVK \u2013 led by an actor turned politician swept the election. However, his party lacked the majority and had to rely on a rival party\u2019s support to get Joseph Vijay\u2019s claim to the Chief Minister post. His voter card states that he\u2019s a Christian \u2013 a fact not lost during the election campaign as BJP-aligned groups used it to discredit him. He has stated he aligns with no religion and that his mother was a Hindu and his father was a Christian. But in India caste and religion are not up for change \u2013 these are documented in birth certificate, identity card and voter card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His party \u2013 TVK or Tamilaga Vetri Kalagam \u2013 is still a racist party that harps on Tamil identity at the expense of an Indian identity. Therefore, nothing much has changed in Tamil Nadu. Due to its racist politics, clashes with other states, the central government of India and neighboring Sri Lanka are to be expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamil Nadus has the second largest state economy of India after Maharashtra. Both states could become newly developed countries within a decade if they gain independence from India due to the fact that they pay far more tax to the central government than they get back from the central government. These 2 states have no wars or disagreement with Pakistan or China and not saddled by India\u2019s extremely poor states, war liabilities and other worthless incumbrances. However, laws inherited from the former Soviet Union including anti-sedition laws keep them tied down to poverty and under-development where all major decisions are made by Gujaratis and Uttar Pradesh politicians destining India to collective poverty. Vijay\u2019s criticism of Indian central government\u2019s imposition and management of GST (goods and services tax) contributed heavily to his election success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile Kerala ended its long relationship with socialist parties. Now India has no socialist or communist party rule in any of its states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

West Bengal replaced its own sectarian political party with a BJP alliance ending decades of ethno-racist politics. Following this shift, Tamil Nadu remains the only ethno-racist enclave in India, willing but unable, to fly free towards prosperity and independence breaking 750 years-old shackles of collective poverty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara After 60 years of continued rule, Dravidian political parties suffered a massive defeat in Tamil Nadu state of India at its state election. DMK, AIADMK and their various offshoots failed to win a sizable number of seats to rule the state. Instead, a newcomer to the political scene \u2013 TVK \u2013 led by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156143,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156142\/revisions\/156143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}