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Journalism of Courage
A day after the police booked Tamil nationalist Seeman over a speech threatening people from north India, the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) leader told The Indian Express on Sunday that his intention was only to caution the government about the “increase in crime rates associated with people from north Indian states”. The police action came a day after election strategist Prashant Kishor demanded action against Seeman.
The comments were made on February 13 during a public meeting that the NTK organised during the Erode East bypoll campaign. During the speech, Seeman suggested that “using an iron fist” alone would help to “get rid of the problem (of north Indians coming to Tamil Nadu for jobs)”.
While the police had already booked him on February 22 for his remarks about the Dalit Arundhatiyar community in the same speech, a senior officer said they had now added more IPC sections to the case because of the remarks about Hindi speakers. Over the past week, there has been a debate in Tamil Nadu about the treatment of migrant workers from north India as several fake reports spread about Tamil people allegedly attacking and mistreating Hindi-speaking migrants.
Seeman told The Indian Express that he did not specifically talk about migrant labourers in his speech, but about important reports “lying on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin’s table on the increase in crimes involving people from north Indian states”. The NTK leader said Tamils were no strangers to migration. “We know migration. We migrated long, long ago. Didn’t we work hard too? That is how we progressed. So please do not tell us that people coming from north India are a necessity for Tamil Nadu’s growth,” he said.
Seeman said many states had brought in amendments to ensure jobs for their residents. “The DMK also speaks about 75 per cent reservation for Tamils during elections but they will not utter a word or do anything after they come to power. It is a fact that crime rates have increased, and ATM robberies and financial crimes are going up. Many police investigations lead to Haryana and many such states, where our police will go and return empty-handed …”
Referring to Prashant Kishor’s comments, he said the poll strategist was targeting him because he is desperate to launch his new party. “My request to people like Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is do give jobs for your people. Do that first, give them jobs and dignity in your state,” Seeman said.
The start of Seeman’s political career was rooted in rationalism and the Periyar school of thought. But, over the years, he embraced Tamil nationalism to emerge as the face of a puritan Tamil identity, especially around the time when the LTTE was defeated and the civil war ended in Sri Lanka. Known for his aggressive positioning on political matters, Seeman has been criticised for making discriminatory comments.
In a 2021 interview with The Indian Express, the NTK leader defended his views on Tamil identity, stating that Tamils were not humanitarians but a “lot more than that”. He said Tamils were not just Hindus but a diverse community that embraced Buddhism once. “India was never a country until the British bundled many into one and named it before they left. But we (Tamils) existed, Telugu people existed, and Malayalees too existed before that India came into existence … I do not talk about my culture and tradition to ridicule others. Look, Tamils are not humanitarians but a lot more than that. We believe in not only living but also in letting others live.”
