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B.R. Ambedkar’s description of North India as conservative, superstitious, educationally backward and ancient and southern part as progressive, rational, educationally forward and modern was deeply reflected in the two swearing in ceremonies, one of C. Joseph Vijay as chief minister of Tamil Nadu and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Suvendu Adhikari as chief minister of West Bengal. Swearing in of BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma as Assam chief minister also falls in the same category as that of Adhikari. Ambedkar categorised North and South in such contrasting terms in his 1955-book Thoughts on Linguistic States.

Inclusive Vijay and divisive Adhikari

Vijay’s party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) emerged as the single largest party in Tamil Nadu and during his election campaign he made it emphatically clear that BJP is his ideological enemy and DMK, the political opponent.

Contrast this with BJP’s Adhikari, who, after defeating Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal’s Bhabanipur, claimed his victory came from Hindu votes alone, using highly toxic communal rhetoric.

While Adhikari projected a divisive understanding of the mandate, after taking oath as the chief minister, Vijay categorically asserted that, “It is a fresh, new beginning; a new era of real, secular social justice starts now. You can trust Vijay 100%. I belong equally to Hindus, Muslims and Christians.”

Of course, after being administered oath of office and being sworn in as the chief minister, Adhikari mentioned that “he was sokoler” the Bengali word denoting everyone’s.  So, there is a mismatch between what he said after assuming office of Chief Minister of West Bengal and how he and his party, BJP, peddled a communally polarising campaign while........

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