The BJP’S Tamil Nadu unit scores an own goal
The state leaders have embarrassed the national leadership by starting a futile fight with a fictional hero
For a party that is trying so hard to build a base for itself in Tamil Nadu the BJP just shot itself in the foot. By upping the ante on the criticism against GST in the Tamil movie Mersal starring Vijay the party ended up embarrassing its national leadership and provided the film the kind of nationwide publicity its producers could not even have dreamt of.
Over the last few years, Vijay had been using political/social dialogues in many of his films. Having been at one time closely linked with the DMK, Vijay has moved away from both Dravidian majors but has done little more than recite loaded dialogues in his movies as evidence of his political ambitions.
However, there are factual inaccuracies in some of the statements related to GST in Mersal. The sequence where Vijay’s character in the movie says that there is no GST for liquor, but a 12% GST for life-saving drugs is factually not correct, because, though not under GST, liquor is taxed at a very high rate. Apart from this there were a few other distortions.
The movie though was cleared by the censor board which saw the dialogues for what they possibly were — a mass hero trying to take on the establishment in a fictional movie by reeling off hyped up lines.
The day after the movie released, Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamizhisai Soundararajan demanded that the producers delete the dialogues related to GST and Digital India. The BJP had a right to protest either in court or to the censor board if they felt that the inaccuracies were deliberate.
Instead of backing off on seeing the rather hostile public reaction the state leaders of the BJP compounded matters when the party’s all India secretary H Raja called Vijay by his full name Joseph Vijay (a name that he rarely uses in public). He tweeted Vijay’s electoral voter ID card bearing his full name. This was seen as an attempt to communalise an issue that until then had no religious overtones.
The state unit was left high and dry with none of the party heavyweights chipping in to defend them. For the party high command this was one issue they could have done without.
Why the BJP state unit decided to pursue this issue despite the backlash is a mystery. They ended up antagonising not just Vijay’s considerable fan base but also a large section of neutrals in Tamil Nadu who felt that though there were factual errors in the dialogues they were not an integral part of the film.
Four or five lines in a two hour 47 minute movie could have been allowed to pass, especially as the censor board felt that way. By appearing hypersensitive to criticism the BJP scored an own goal in Tamil Nadu. There are only two emotions in the world — fear and love. Where there is love, fear cannot survive; and where there is fear, love cannot exist.
We need to understand whether we love god or fear him. For me, there is no need to be afraid of god as he is called the ocean of love. We should worship him because we love him. And if we’re in fear, we are not in a place of love. Loving god lets you come closer to him.