Overview

• The Murugan Bhaktargal conference in Madurai on June 22 attracted hundreds of thousands of devotees and featured speeches by Pawan Kalyan and K Annamalai underscoring a campaign for Hindu consolidation
• Delegates passed resolutions demanding the HR&CE department hand over temple management to independent boards, protect Murugan hills and resist religious conversions
• AIADMK leaders present at the event say they attended as devotees and have formally condemned a video clip that portrayed Dravidian icons in a negative light
• DMK organisational secretary RS Bharathi accused the AIADMK of betraying Dravidian values by sharing the stage at the BJP-backed gathering
• BJP state vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy defended the contested video as a critique of atheism and affirmed that the BJP-AIADMK alliance remains intact