TVK’s test over Speaker’s abortion stand, minister’s Bible remark

Chennai: Christian faith is in the eye of a political storm in Tamil Nadu after Assembly Speaker J. C. D. Prabhakar’s anti-abortion remark Monday, followed by finance minister N. Marie Wilson’s separate assertion Tuesday that Tamil couldn’t teach him the language of love, the Bible did that.

The two remarks have put the ruling TVK government on the defensive, with the Opposition accusing it of allowing religion to enter public policy and constitutional offices. The government, however, has sought to distance its health policy from the Speaker’s personal views, while defending the finance minister’s comments as a response to criticism of his Tamil skills while reading the budget.

BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan questioned, “How can a Speaker participate in a religious procession? They are claiming to be a secular party. And the finance minister is saying, I am a Christian, so I cannot talk Tamil! And the Speaker is advocating abortion because he is a Christian. I strongly condemn because the Speaker should be neutral. Speaker should be secular.”

“In the morning, they pass resolutions to elevate Tamil for the sake of language pride, but in the evening, a minister from the ruling party speaks as if Tamil and love have no connection, and as if his religion alone teaches love, this is strongly condemnable. This shows that Tamil exists only on their lips, not in their lives,” she wrote on X.

Speaker Prabhakar was the chief guest at the fifth National March for Life, a pro-life rally organised by Catholic groups in Chennai on 8-9 August. The rally criticised the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, with slogans such as ‘Let’s stop abortion’ and ‘Abortion is murder’.

He said, “Every unborn child has dignity, all children are God’s blessings since they are God-given and we have no right to abortion.”

Coming after such comments, the finance minister’s remark added to the debate on faith and secularism under TVK, which is led by Chief Minister Joseph Vijay whose father is a Christian and mother a Hindu.

The TVK finance minister’s statement came in response to MDMK MLA T.M. Rajendran’s criticism that the former’s speech contained grammatical errors in Tamil before he switched to English. Wilson said that Christianity had taught him “the language of love, the language of peace, the language of compassion. No matter how much Tamil is studied, some people will not understand these values. I have read it in the Bible. I am a born Christian,” Wilson said in the Assembly.

The finance minister said his priority was governance and the progress of Tamil Nadu rather than linguistic formalities. He further said that members were mocking his communication style and background instead of focusing on his work.

Rattled by the backlash over the Speaker’s anti-abortion remarks, Tamil Nadu Health Minister K. G. Arunraj sought to clarify the TVK government’s position, saying that abortion is regulated by the MTP Act, under which women can legally terminate a pregnancy up to 20 weeks (and in certain cases beyond).

Speaking at a press meet on the sidelines of an event in the city, he emphasised that abortion is often a medical necessity. Distancing the state’s health policy from the Speaker’s remarks, Arunraj said he did not know the context in which Prabhakar had spoken and urged the public not to misinterpret the comments.

Opposition parties and women’s rights activists strongly criticised Speaker Prabhakar’s participation in the pro-life rally, arguing that a constitutional office-holder should not endorse a campaign that challenges women’s reproductive autonomy. DMK leader T. K. S. Elangovan criticised the Speaker and said decisions on abortion are medical, not political, and must be left to doctors based on the patient’s condition.

“How can it be decided by anyone else? For some conditions, if medication is not sufficient, doctors may recommend surgery. What is wrong with that? Why should the government comment on such matters? …This government has nothing else to talk about. They are not talking about the Cauvery issue; instead, they are talking about all these things,” he told PTI.

Author-activist Shalin Maria Lawrence said that abortion rights are constitutional in India. “At a time when we are asking for bodily autonomy and women rights, it is not men who are bearing the burden of pregnancy so how can such messages be preached? Contraception for men is not practised in India and the whole burden falls on the woman to give birth; and raising a child is a bigger responsibility. We cannot replicate western playbook on issues such as abortion in India,” she told ThePrint.

Shalin also emphasised that we need to take the shame away from abortion which is a taboo subject in the state. “Religion cannot be used as a controlling tool for any individual. It sends a very wrong message to society, even if it was Prabhakar’s own belief. Even the availability of morning-after pills has been a problem in the state for many years and we cannot be imposing such beliefs on women,” she added.

BJP leader and spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy, in a statement on X, said that there is nothing wrong with the Speaker being a believer in the Christian faith, but showing eagerness to impose that religion and its beliefs on the public is not appropriate.

“If anyone in Tamil Nadu had acted similarly based on Hindu beliefs, political parties such as the Congress, DMK, Communists, and VCK would have sharply criticised Hindu beliefs and gods by now. However, because minorities vote along religious lines, none of these political parties dare to call these incidents ‘communalism’. Therefore, these political parties and politicians themselves are the real communal parties and the people of Tamil Nadu will understand that what they preach is pseudo-secularism,” he said.

Speaker Prabhakar was formerly with the AIADMK and joined the TVK in January 2026. He had quoted verses from the Bible during his maiden address as Speaker from the Tamil Nadu Assembly chair.

He has frequently addressed Christian gatherings, including events organised by the Tamil Nadu Christian Churches Federation, where he spoke of the government’s outreach to minorities and assured that community’s demands would be taken to Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay.

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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