TIRUCHY: Declaring that 2019 parliamentary elections would be a battle between Sanatana forces and democracy, DMK president MK Stalin on Wednesday called upon people to defeat both the BJP and the AIADMK either if they come together or “conspire and contest separately”.

Stalin, along with national leaders of Left parties and Congress spoke in VCK’s State-level conference Save the Nation, which had the theme ‘Sanatana vs Democracy’. VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan, who presided over, said the coalition led by the DMK would sweep all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. 

Addressing the gathering, Stalin said “This conference is held to save the nation. Who is the threat to the nation? Is there any invasion from outside?  No. The threat to our country is from within. The rulers of the nation themselves turn out to be its threat. That is why I announce the upcoming election as the second freedom struggle of India.”

Stalin charged BJP with branding opposition parties as anti-nationals and said he was proud to be called an anti-national if it meant opposing the BJP. Also, he lashed out at the Union government for introducing 10 per cent reservation for the Upper Caste poor, and wondered, “Does (Prime Minister) Modi have any concern for the economically weaker sections among Backward Classes and Dalits?”

Listing the schemes passed by the Justice party and the DMK “to explain to those who keep asking what the Dravidian movement has done for Dalits”, Stalin recalled the appointment of first Dalit judge to the Madras High Court by the DMK government, building Samathuvapuram, naming the Law university after Ambedkar, among others.

Former union minister from Congress, Kodikunil Suresh of Kerala, said “Absence of Thirumavalavan in the Lok Sabha has created a vacuum in raising Dalit rights issues. I want his presence in the next Lok Sabha.”

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy asserted nobody could stop Rahul Gandhi becoming the next Prime Minister. But CPM state secretary Sitaram Yechury had a different take. “Like 2004, Opposition parties should now unite in defeating the BJP first and pave the way for an alternative secular government.”

CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy, TNCC chief S Thirunavukkarasar, DK president K Veeramani, IUML leader KM Kader Mohideen and MMK’s MH Jawahirullah also spoke.