Chennai, Oct 14 DMK shared a cartoon that drew a comparison between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s viral hand gesture and that of the RSS flag salute, on its social media handle and called the ruling TVK ‘a child of RSS’.
What began as a brief hand movement to signal a finalised political deal has snowballed into a controversy and social media war that has taken a new dimension on Wednesday after the DMK’s IT Wing shared the cartoon with a teaser relating his party to the RSS.
The origin of the gesture traces back to March, 2026, when DMK president and the then chief minister M K Stalin used a swift hand movement outside the party headquarters following seat-sharing deliberations with the Congress party to signal “a deal was done”. The message was meant for the reporters who were eagerly waiting outside to know the result of the deliberations, Stalin clarified after the gesture went viral.
By June 2026, Vijay adopted a modified hand gesture on the floor of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly soon after DMK staged a walkout from the House.
After the moment went viral across social media platforms, TVK supporters adopted this gesture as a signature pose to depict their leader in all political posters and hoardings.
Similarly, TN CM Vijay and his senior cabinet colleagues N Anand, Aadhav Arjuna, K G Arun Raj, and C T R Nirmal Kumar celebrated their party’s victory in the Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly bypolls by posing for the camera while making the same viral hand gesture at the Secretariat.
(PTI News)
