Actor turned politician C. Joseph Vijay was on Sunday sworn in as Tamil Nadu chief minister at the head of what will be the state’s first coalition government, with the Congress due to join it.
A sense of ideological discomfort marked the ceremony for some, with all six stanzas of Vande Mataram sung before the swearing-in — followed by Jana Gana Mana, thereby pushing the Tamil anthem Tamizh Thai Vazhthu to third — and again afterwards.
Vijay, who shares elements of the Dravidian ideology, and Rahul Gandhi, who attended the event, looked uneasy when the cameras zoomed in on them during the second rendition of the national song, whose last four stanzas are deemed non-secular by many Opposition parties.
Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar administered the oath of office and secrecy to Vijay and nine other Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam MLAs amid loud cheers from the Nehru Indoor Stadium audience.
Vijay, invited to form the government with support from DMK allies Congress, CPI, CPM, Dalit party VCK and the Indian Union Muslim League after five nail-biting days of suspense, took the oath in Tamil in the name of God, as did eight of the others.
Adhav Arjuna, Vijay’s confidant and poll strategist, alone took the oath in the name of the Constitution, appearing to signal that while TVK politics lay within the contours of the rationalist and atheistic Dravidian Movement, it carried a lighter ideological baggage than, say, the DMK.
Perhaps as a balancing act, Vijay paid homage at Periyar Memorial — erected to the late social reformer and Dravidian Movement icon Thanthai Periyar — after visiting the secretariat with his ministers and formally assuming charge.
The TVK’s other declared icons include Bhimrao Ambedkar and 18th-century Sivaganga queen Velu Nachiyar, who fought the British, in a nod to the party’s outreach to Dalits and women who are believed to have rallied behind Vijay in the
April polls.
The swearing-in ceremony implemented to the letter a recent Union home ministry order that every key state and central function must kick off with a full rendition of Bengali writer Bankim Chandra Chattopodhyay’s Vande Mataram, the national song, followed by Jana Gana Mana, the national anthem composed by Rabindranath Tagore.
It was only after a group of vocalists on the dais had sung both these songs that Tamizh Thai Vazhthu (Salutations to Mother Tamil), written by poet Manonmaniyam Sundarnar, was rendered. This Tamil song is usually the first to be sung at all government functions in the state.
As though to offset any political fallout, at least two of the new ministers who took their oath ended by hailing Mother Tamil, chanting “Tamizh Vaazhga”.
At the end of the ceremony, all six stanzas of Vande Mataram – composed in a mix of Sanskrit and Bengali — were sung again, with the cameras capturing helpless stares from Rahul and Vijay, both keenly aware how sensitive an issue language is in the state.
It was not immediately clear whether the change in protocol had been conveyed to Vijay. For the Congress in particular, the matter represented a double whammy as the BJP has turned the national song into an assertion of its Hindutva politics.
A second rendition of Jana Gana Mana wrapped up the proceedings.
When Parliament debated Vande Mataram to mark the song’s purported 150th anniversary, many Opposition members underscored how its last four stanzas contained a Hindu religious tinge, and how — on Tagore’s advice — only the first two had been anointed as the national song by a committee containing Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders of the freedom movement.
The state CPI condemned the lower order of priority given to the Tamil invocation song, and DMK spokesperson T.K.S. Elangovan termed it an “insult” to Tamil.
After the governor left, Vijay broke protocol and made a spirited speech to his fans and party members, thanking them for their hard work. A newly sworn-in chief minister is not supposed to deliver a speech at the ceremony.
Vijay also thanked the five parties that have shored up his numbers, showering gratitude particularly on Rahul. The Congress nominee to join the ministry has not been named yet; the other four parties are providing outside support.
Vijay promised free, fair and transparent governance to all, including minorities, declaring that a “new era of secularism and social justice starts now”.
He signed three orders from the dais itself, providing free electricity up to 200 units to households that consume 500 units or less in their two-monthly cycles, forming a special task force to enhance women’s safety, and constituting district-level special police teams to fight drug abuse.
Vijay also pledged a “white paper” on the state government’s finances and sought “some time to fulfil the TVK’s election manifesto promises in phases”.
Later in the evening, M.V. Karuppiah of the TVK, who was formerly in the AIADMK, was administered the oath of office as pro-tem Speaker.
He will swear in all the new MLAs on Monday. The Speaker is expected to be elected on Tuesday. On Wednesday, May 13, Vijay will have to seek a confidence vote.
Among the other ministers sworn in were K.G. Arun Raj (former IRS officer), K.A. Sengottaiyan (former AIADMK minister), Rajmohan, R. Nirmalkumar, P. Venkataramanan, T.K. Prabhu andS. Keerthana.