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Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said it has long been the tendency of the ruling DMK to make Tamil Nadu “appear very different from the rest of India”
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman during an exclusive interview with Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi. (Image: News18)
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tore into Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for projecting an “Aryan-Dravidian” narrative in the poll-bound state.
Sitharaman said Stalin’s narrative is “not new” and reflects the “completely separatist mindset” of the ruling DMK, which has lived with it for ages.
“It is not new. It is a completely separatist mindset that rules the ruling party of Tamil Nadu. They have lived with it, and they continue doing it,” Sitharaman told Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi in an exclusive interview.
She said this is simply a tendency of the DMK to make Tamil Nadu appear “very different from the rest of India and to give a picture of ‘we don’t care what you do; we are a separate state’”. She claimed that the people of the state are not like that.
“That mindset is what they want to feed continuously, which worries me. The people of Tamil Nadu are not like that. The current leadership of Tamil Nadu wants to play on this wedge-driving. That is why, for every such comment that they get, there are people who respond, and those responses build on it. It is a sad state. I am not sure I want to credit anybody, but Tamil Nadu has not seen it this bad as it is seeing it under the current dispensation,” she added.
As Tamil Nadu inches closer to the assembly elections, Stalin and the DMK have stoked the complex as well as long-standing Aryan-Dravidian debate, much like the North-South divide or the controversy around the alleged imposition of Hindi language in southern states. Many experts argue that this identity split was amplified by colonial scholarship and later fused into regional politics to mobilise support, especially in Tamil Nadu.
Asked why the BJP has still not managed to make a substantial dent in the state’s electoral politics, Sitharaman further said it will take time to do so. She said even a national party like the Congress, which lost power 60 years ago in the state, is playing second fiddle to the DMK government.
“…it (Congress) is always standing up only with the crutches of a party with whose alliance they try to win some MLAs and a few MPs. They are not able to come back to power. Whereas Tamil Nadu was never under the BJP; we are now trying to serve the people and enter to win some seats. And we hope that the alliance will be able to form a government there,” she said.
February 02, 2026, 21:58 IST
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