During the 2021 election campaign when he brandished a single brick in his hand calling out the unfulfilled promise of the union government to set up an AIIMS hospital in Madurai, the sarcasm was not lost on anyone and it emerged as an election issue. Three years later, as Tamil Nadu's Deputy Chief Minister, Udhayanidhi Stalin still has the single red brick with him, which he says will to return to the union government once it allows the required funds for the construction of the AIIMS in Madurai.
Udhayanidhi was speaking Manorama Hortus, the three-day art and literature festival organised by the Malayala Manorama group at Kozhikode in Kerala. The young leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) during his 15 minute speech took the audience through the struggles and efforts taken by the deeply entrenched Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu and how the struggles placed Tamil at the core of the state's identity and turned the people progressive.
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Touching upon Periyar and his Dravidian ideologies, former chief ministers C.N. Annadurai and M.Karunanidhi and their contributions to the linguistic ideals of the state, Udhayanidhi said Tamil literature was used to propagate rationalism and promote scientific temper.
"Leaders like Anna and Kalaignar popularized Tamil literature that was rooted in human life and popular culture - like Thirukkural, Silappathikaram, Purananuru, and Tholkappiyam— among the people."
Stating that the self-respect movement was the front runner of the Dravidian movement which rose to resist the cultural and linguistic domination, he said that Tamil was just not the medium of communication in the 1920s and 1960s but was the voice of a community seeking recognition, dignity, and independence from Hindi imposition.
"The push to make Hindi the official language during the 1930s and later in the 1960s stimulated the Dravidian movement, as it was perceived as an
existential threat to Tamil culture and linguistic identity," he pointed out.
The deputy chief minister said the language struggle that erupted in the 1930s and the 1960s is still on as the Union government continued with attempts at Hindi imposition.
"Even last month, Doordarshan's Tamil Nadu division organised a Hindi month celebration. Our Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi also participated in it. DMK's student wing staged a protest in front of the DD office in Chennai. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin came down heavily on the Governor because he has a history of evading Dravidian ideologies," Udhayanidhi said.
Earlier, welcoming the deputy chief minister to the Hortus festival, Malayala Manorama executive editor Jayant Mammen Mathew asked Udhayanidhi if he still has the Madurai AIIMS brick with him or if he had given it for constructing the hospital premises.