Salem: DMK MP A Raja on Sunday said Tamil Nadu needs Dravidian nationalism and Tamil nationalism, not Hindu nationalism. His remark came on the eve of the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

Speaking at a gathering in Salem, A Raja said religion can never become nationality but language can.

“We are separated in the name of caste and you try to make us be one in the name of religion…We want to be united in the name of religion as per law but we don’t want to be Hindus as you say and we don’t want that Hindu nationalism. We need Dravidian nationalism and Tamil nationalism,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

He took a veiled jibe at the BJP, claiming the latter wants a Hindu nation.

“Today they speak about Hindu nation. There was no nation in the name of religion earlier. Pakistan separated from India because Savarkar said it was a Hindu nation so Jinnah said that they were an Islamic nation and separated (from India),” he said.

Also read: MK Stalin government ‘banned’ Ayodhya Temple live telecast in Tamil Nadu: Nirmala Sitharaman

“Religion never can become nationality but language can become nationality,” he said.

Last week, party chief MK Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin had said the DMK wasn’t in agreement with a temple built after demolishing a mosque.

“We don’t have a problem with a temple coming up there. We are not in agreement with the construction of a temple after demolishing a mosque,” the DMK Youth Wing chief said, referring to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, PTI reported.

On Sunday, union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the MK Stalin government in Telangana had banned the live telecast of the Ayodhya event. The government said the BJP was trying to take the public’s attention away from DMK’s youth event.