Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday seemed to obliquely seek a price from the people of Tamil Nadu for the installation of a sengol, a Chola-style sceptre, in the new Parliament.
Addressing a rally in Vellore to mark nine years of the Narendra Modi government, Shah appealed to the people of the state to elect 25 National Democratic Alliance candidates in next year’s general election "to thank him (Prime Minister Modi) for the sengol”.
The government had installed the sengol on May 28 amid religious rituals by priests from Tamil Nadu, claiming it symbolised the transfer of power from the British in 1947. Scholars have challenged the claim, seeking evidence that the government has so far not furnished.
"2024 me phir se ek baar, 300 seaton ke saath Narendra Modi sarkar bannewali hai. Mai aapse vinati karne aaya hoon, Tamil Nadu se Modiji ko 25 saathi NDA ke chunkar desh ki Parliament me, sengol ke liye Modiji ka dhanyavad karne ke liye bhej dijiye,” Shah said towards the end of his speech, which was translated live into Tamil by a BJP leader.
An English translation: "A Narendra Modi government with 300 seats is set to be formed again in 2024. I appeal to you to elect 25 NDA colleagues of Modi to Parliament to thank him for the sengol."
Earlier during his speech, too, Shah had sought at least 25 of Tamil Nadu’s 39 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, stressing that some of these MPs would be made ministers.
While the sengol’s installation carried clear Hindutva overtones, it was also aimed at wooing the electorate in Tamil Nadu, a southern state where the BJP is desperately seeking a toehold, especially after the loss of Karnataka.
The BJP currently has no Lok Sabha member from Tamil Nadu while ally AIADMK has just one. They face a huge challenge in 2024 given the ruling DMK’s political dominance in the state.
Shah, in his speech, stressed Modi’s “deep attachment to Tamil Nadu”, recalling the “Kashi Tamil Sangamam” event last year in the Prime Minister’s Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi that sought to highlight the holy city’s cultural connection with the southern state.
He also referred to the 2019 summit between Modi and Chinese President Xi Jingping at Mamallapuram, asserting the event was held in Tamil Nadu to promote tourism.
Shah claimed that Modi had promoted Tamil culture and literature not only in India but across the globe.
He attacked the state’s DMK government, accusing it of corruption and nepotism.
“The Congress and the DMK are 2G, 3G, 4G parties. I am not talking about the 2G (spectrum scandal) — ‘2G’ means ‘2 generations’, ‘3G’ means ‘3 generations’ and ‘4G’ means ‘4 generations’,” he said.
Shah went on to accuse Opposition parties in general of dynastic rule and corruption.
The home minister later flew to Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh to hold another rally, where he accused the ruling YSR Congress Party of corruption and lack of development work.
He sought 20-plus of the state’s 25 Lok Sabha seats for Modi and described the sengol as a “cultural and historical” symbol that the Prime Minister had restored to its past glory.
The BJP accuses the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and later Congress leaderships of cosigning the “sacred” sengol to a corner of a museum as a personal belonging before Modi gave it its “rightful” place.
