Speaking at the launch of a biography on Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, member of the Indian National Congress (INC) party, Rahul Gandhi, claimed a deep tie historic tie to Tamil Nadu and slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for imposing his ideas on the state.
“Because my blood is mixed with your soil […] I realised that I do have the right to call myself Tamil” claimed Gandhi whilst reflecting on the assassination of his father, Rajiv Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi served as 6th Prime Minister from 1984 to 1989 negotiating the Indo-Lanka accords which introduced the 13th amendment and overseeing India’s Peace Keeping Force, which stands accused of numerous war crimes.
Rahul Gandhi’s statement and biography follow local elections in Tamil Nadu in which the DMK secured a landslide victory securing 60.08% of the total 12818 wards. The rival AIDMK secured only 15.7% of the wards whilst the INC was the third-largest party securing 4.62% of the wards. The BJP gained noticeable ground in Tamil Nadu as the fourth-largest party and gained 2.4% of the wards.
Criticising Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi claimed that Modi was trying to impose his ideas “when he does not understand that Tamil Nadu is not merely two words, and that it is a 3,000-year-old civilisation, he insults the state and the country also”.
Gandhi’s biography of Stalin is titled “Ungalil Oruvan” (One Among You) and was launched on 28 February in advance of the Chief Minister's 69th birthday.
Read more here: 'Address the legitimate aspirations of the Tamil community' - India tells Sri Lanka to implement the 13th Amendment
Read Gandhi's full remarks here.