00:00Okay, so all eyes are on Vijay, but the big question, where does this leave the Dravidian parties?
00:06Is it the end of the road for parties that have dominated the politics of Tamil Nadu for over six
00:13decades?
00:14DMK and AIDMK, do they need to reimagine their politics?
00:18Is Tamil sub-nationalism still attractive for Gen Z?
00:22Some of the questions I will raise in my face-off now.
00:25Selam Dhardi Dharam, spokesperson of the DMK.
00:30He's joining me, and Kowai Satyan, spokesperson AIDMK, joins me at the moment.
00:35First to you, Mr. Dhardi Dharam, because you're right here in the studio, and I want to ask you this
00:39question straight off.
00:41Do you accept the rise of Vijay has exposed the limitations of these two major Dravidian formations?
00:47You took the voters for granted. Along comes Vijay and takes over Tamil Nadu.
00:53See, it is a Dravidian movement, more than 100 years long, that gave aspiration to the people.
00:58That is to question the authority.
00:59And today, Tamil Nadu has 90% internet penetration, and which is why this vote is actually for anti-establishment.
01:07And Vijay has proved that using social media, using Instagram, he can form a government.
01:14But winning an electionтАж
01:15But you are the establishment.
01:16The Dravidian parties were the establishment. From 1967 to 2026, you have dominated the politics.
01:24You are the establishment. Along comes Vijay and Topols, and you're saying Dravidian movement, there will be those who will
01:29say the Dravidian movement became a family movement when it came to the DMK.
01:33No, it is not thatтАж The people, because we gave a lot of aspiration, they wanted more. We did our
01:38best. Now they have given Vijay a chance. They did give us three victories in the last seven years.
01:44Of course, if Vijay doesn't deliver, they'll come back to us. If it took only one year for them to
01:50give Vijay such a massive mandate, it will take less than that for the people to strip him of that
01:56mandate.
01:57But now that he has formed the government, let's wait and watch if he was able to deliver the mandate.
02:01But one thing I want to tell, winning an election is completely different from governance.
02:05You canтАж Because he has that charisma, he's been that angry young man in the movies, people have given him
02:10the mandate. Mostly I would also say youth unemployment across the world because of new transformations in the world.
02:17That could be one of the reasons. But if he's not able to deliver on those promises, it will come
02:22back to the Dravidian parties.
02:23You know, you're saying that this is a reflection of youth anger. I heard Praveen Chakravarty saying this is India's
02:30Gen Z moment.
02:32Does that suggest that parties like yours are out of touch with Gen Z? Gen Z wants something new, something
02:38different.
02:38They don't want to see the same faces. They don't want to see M.K. Stalin being replaced by Uday
02:44Nidhi Stalin.
02:45They want to see someone who represents fresh energy and ideas. Do you concede that you need to reimagine the
02:50way you do your politics?
02:53See, as you said, I think it is not against the Dravidian movement as such. I'm saying against all the
02:58parties and all the formations in the country.
03:00We had recently the movement in Nepal and we know who the head of the government there is.
03:04We saw En March in France and we similarly saw even Trump, how he transformed the Republic Party and then
03:11came to power or in Ukraine.
03:12So, this is a movement or rather that's angry movement against the establishment.
03:17There's nothing to do with the ideology of the DMK. They'll hate it or like it. It was different for
03:22them.
03:23That's all. That's about it. That's where I'll put it.
03:24But the question here is about will he be able to deliver. That's where I leave it.
03:28There is time. There is more time to scrutiny. Then we'll speak about it later.
03:31No, no. So, you're saying that you're hoping that Vijay comes to power and finds that winning an election is
03:37very different to governance and then you're hoping to fill up the space, the vacuum that you're saying that will
03:44be created.
03:45But you're living on hope at the moment. The truth is you're living on hope. You're hoping that Vijay fails
03:50and then you come back to occupy the space.
03:56That's not introspection. That's living on hope. You're not introspecting at all. You're not accepting that something may have gone
04:03wrong with the structure of the Dravidian parties.
04:05I'm not saying that. I'm also saying thatтАж
04:06Serious charges of corruption, allegations of nepotism. These are the charges against your government which Vijay has capitalized on.
04:13There was a perception of corruption and law on earth. Perception. I'm underlining the word perception.
04:18Your ministers went to jail. That's not perception only.
04:22As Senthil Balaji goes to jail, you say it's perception.
04:24In 1991, DMK got only two MLAs. We didn't come to power from 1977 to 1989. For example, from 1979
04:34to 1996, we are only in power for two years.
04:36But we came back stronger. We won three elections in a row. We will reinvent ourselves. We will go to
04:42the drawing board and see what we have to do to connect with the Zenzis and we will connect with
04:48them.
04:48I'm not saying we are believing on hope. He delivers, does not deliver, does not matter. But we will convince
04:54them that we can deliver much better in a new way for the new Zenzis.
05:00What is it that you believe that will make the likes of, say, an MK Stalin, someone who's come through
05:05the system to his credit, deputy mayor, mayor, how does he make himself more attractive?
05:11The interesting aspect is Tamil Nadu had a high growth rate. You had the highest growth rate last year in
05:15the country, 11%.
05:16Despite that, the people seem to have preferred an actor politician making his debut over an established party like yours.
05:25What do you need to do, in your view, to make yourself more attractive to this newer, younger generation?
05:32How do you make yourself attractive to a newer, younger generation, in your view?
05:36Firstly, this mandate is not just for the last five, in my opinion, not for the five years of the
05:40government, but the preceding 10 years of ADMK and I will go even further than the previous five years.
05:44They wanted younger people to be in politics, nobody's to become MLA's.
05:48If you look at TVK, the biggest difference, or maybe in some areas it was ridicule, but the biggest scoring
05:53point in social media was Vijay's driver's son being given an MLA ticket.
05:57So, the politics of money, politics of caste, politics of grassroot are over. That is what Vijay has proved.
06:04Say that again, politics of money, politics of caste, politics of grassroot.
06:11You are accepting that the politics of money and corruption have been defeated.
06:15Politics of money and caste have been defeated.
06:17Politics of money, caste and grassroot.
06:20For example, I will give you an anecdote, in Yadapadi constituency, where Yadapadi, Palani Swami had brought off, bought the
06:27TVK MLA.
06:29So, there was no TVK there.
06:30Vijay goes on record, 30-second message.
06:33What is the 30-second message?
06:35If ADMK has brought our MLA, vote for this independent candidate.
06:38Only one 30-second message, that guy gets 50,000 votes.
06:41He is number two there.
06:43So, that is because he has that credibility.
06:47But the credibility depends on how he delivers.
06:48But the credibility comes from the angry young man in the movies.
06:51So, they want an angry young man to transform the system.
06:54So, that showsтАж
06:55They want the angry young man to transform the system, Selam Dhani Dharan,
06:59because there is a belief that the system has failed them.
07:01That the system has enriched a few at the cost of many.
07:04There is an acceptance of that.
07:06The Dravida movement spoke of social justice.
07:08It spoke of ensuring, in a way, of empowering people right across the spectrum.
07:15And there is a belief that rather than doing that, it only ended up eventually enriching a few at the
07:21cost of many.
07:22Just look at the wealth accumulated by DMK and AIDMK politicians over the years.
07:27No, I think it is a success of the Dravidian movement that party like Vijay can come,
07:31because we taught them to aspire.
07:33Why can't such a movement happen in Madhya Pradesh or let's say in Bihar
07:36or in many other BJP rule states for the last 25 years per capita GDP,
07:41less than five times in Tamil Nadu,
07:42because of aspiration that we have created to question the status quo.
07:47I am seeing this in itself as a success of the Dravidian movement,
07:50for them to question the status quo.
07:51But the same aspirational society will test him, right?
07:55Will test.
07:56Will test him.
07:58Okay, we'll wait and see.
07:59Whether they can test him or not is something that will be decided upon, of course, in the future.
08:05We don't know what the future holds.
08:07No one knows what the future holds in Indian politics.
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