Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: September 22, 2007
Karunanidhi is inflaming passion
There's nothing startlingly original about
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's obnoxious and obscene verbal assault
on Lord Ram and the Ramayan tradition; far worse sacrilegious acts have been
committed in the past at the behest of the man who continues to inspire the
DMK's patriarch. For, let us not forget that EV Ramaswami Naicker, who made
a fetish of his claimed atheism but never quite had the guts to attack any
other religion apart from Hinduism, took out a procession in 1956 with Lord
Ram's picture garlanded with slippers before making an elaborate show of destroying
the portrait in public. Mr Karunanidhi and others of his ilk may remember
'Periyar' for so boldly denouncing Hindu faith (without uttering so much as
a squeak on either Islam or Christianity), many others remember 'EVR' as the
author of The Ramayana: A True Reading, a particularly vicious and scurrilous
attack on the Ramayan tradition that was published in 1959. In a sense, Mr
Karunanidhi's uncalled for denigration of Lord Ram and Ramayan is an extension
of his idol's vituperative denunciation of the man whom millions of Hindus,
including in Tamil Nadu, consider to be Maryada Purushottam and who inspires
nothing but the noblest of thoughts. What is most distressing is the uncivilised
manner in which Mr Karunanidhi has sought to voice his dissenting view - it
flies in the face of his claim to being a man of culture as advertised by
the prefix to his name, 'Kalaignar'. Surely there's more to being 'cultured'
and 'civilised' than heaping abuse on articles of popular faith. His admirers,
among them our Marxists who revel in denouncing all things Hindu, are no doubt
thrilled by Mr Karunanidhi's unrestrained diatribe, but the veteran politician
would do well to remember that a person holding public office is expected
to behave in a responsible manner.
Mr Karunanidhi has, in the past fortnight,
displayed a shocking disregard for a Chief Minister to carefully weigh his
words and be mindful of the consequences of his public utterances. His appalling
comments on Lord Ram, the Ramayan tradition and popular Hindu faith have the
potential to inflame public opinion beyond Tamil Nadu; revulsion has a tendency
to manifest itself in the form of violent protest. Of course, such violence
cannot be justified - the attack on the house of Mr Karunanidhi's daughter
deserves unequivocal condemnation - but is best avoidable. It is mystifying
as to what exactly the DMK chieftain wishes to achieve by pouring scorn on
Lord Ram. He is not doing the DMK's ally, the Congress, a favour; on the contrary,
the Congress and other members of the UPA will have to bear the burden of
his verbal abuse in vast swaths of the country when elections are held. Even
within Tamil Nadu, there is palpable resentment against his diatribe and it
is not limited to the favourite hate figure of DMK politics. It is possible
that Mr Karunanidhi is caught in a time warp and believes he is still living
in the 1950s when Ram-bashing was a rage among 'rationalists' in that State.
It is equally possible that his rant is prompted by the apprehension that
the Sethusamudram Shipping Channel Project may suffer a setback in the coming
days; its implications need not be elaborated. Reasons apart, it is a pity
that a Chief Minister should elect to speak in such bazaar language.