Author: Sankara. Mahadevan
Publication: Media Centre (Chennai)
Date:
Unlike in other states, which celebrate
their 'rajyotsav', the state of Tamil Nadu does not bother to celebrate
its formation day falling during November. All the samepeople witnessed
an unprecedented development, on November 1 overshadowing everything else.
Guess what it is?
It was not the scene of striking
teachers and government employees picketting and getting arrested
all over the state braving ESMA. It was the news of a massive rally on
the sprawling beach in Chennai the previous day which snatched media
attention. That evening, open umbrellas in hand, over 10,000 persons,
men and women, turned out on the sands with the Bay of Bengal sea roaring
nearby, in response to Kanchi Shankaracharya Shri. Jayendra Saraswathi
Swamy's call to "celebrate Deepavali by supporting the recent conversion
ban ordinance." They listened with rapt attention to the exhortation
of Swamiji unmindful of the howling winds heralding the north east
monsoon which inundated the state capital last week. Not that
a rally in support of the Ordinance that was unprecedented; the one at
Madurai the previous week was graced by a large number of Sadhus and Hindu
organisations swinging into action; Madurai media described that event
as one which "shook Madurai." But the Chennai Shankaracharya rally stood
out in that a traditional Hindu institution came out in the open in support
of a legislative measure congenial to Hindu interests.
Though the Deepavali celebration
part of it consisted of new sarees and dhotis being distributed to over
a 1,000 people right there, the real spirit of the Hindu festival was eminently
highlighted by the flood of saffron flags that day all along Thilakar ghat
on the marina beach, the hallowed site of freedom struggle days when Lokamanya
Thilak and poet Subramania Bharathi had addressed vast gatherings driving
home the need for swa rajya. This time it was for swa dharma.
i.e., the Hindutva.
This was a brilliance in an otherwise
gloomy scene in the state. The 10 day old state government
employees' strike for a wage hike was stonewalled by a stern Chief Minister.
The imperious lady argued, "Already 94% of government revenue is spent
on employee salary." For the general public, though the arrival of
the belated monsoon was a welcome relief, it no doubt dampened the buying
spree during the festival season. In contrast to all this was the
near universal enthusiasm of the thinking section of the public evoked
by the conversion ban ordinance which was passed in the Legislative
Assembly on the very day of the beach rally.
At the rally the Shankarachary insisted,
"all of us must be aware of our Hindu identity" and held the activities
of non Hindus responsible for "this Hindu show of strength". He pointed
out that for long conversion was going on in the state but as the number
of complaints of such incidents increased, it became necessary for a law
to be enacted. At this juncture, it would be of interest to note
how the mere existence of the ordinance came handy to the Theni district
collector in thwarting the attempts of a Christian group in that backward
district to plant a church by trespassing into government lands.
Of course, the collector acted upon complaints from Hindus well informed
of the ordinance.
The most evident highlight of the
rally on the Chennai beach was the presence of a sizeable number of Harijans
and the Shankaracharya, through his speech, let them all know that he was
aware of the persistent evil practice of untouchability. He cited
the practice of keeping a separate tumbler for Harijan brethren in some
village tea stalls and counselled an immediate halt to the pernicious habit.
Any Hindu deity shall go in procession through any street in the village,
provided the residents invite the deity in complete piety, the Shankaracharya
assured.
As the rally was in progress on
the stormy beach, news broke out that the Bill to replace the 'Tamil Nadu
Forcible Conversions Prevention Ordinance' has been passed by the Tamil
Nadu Legislative Assembly minutes back. Of course, after a stormy
debate on the floor of the House, during which the DMK for its anti-Hindu
vituperations and the Congress for its doublespeak on conversion ban legislations
came in for a severe dressing down by the supporters of the Bill.
The House passed the Bill with 140 voting for and a mere 73 voting against.
In a House where heckling at Hindu
religion used to be not uncommon, the presence of BJP changed it all.
During the debate, Shri. H.Raja, one of the 5 BJP MLAs, read out
with the permission of the Speaker, a portion from a Hindi encylopaedia
neatly nailing the lie spread for decades by DMK and DK that the word Hindu
in Persian meant a thief.
The encylopaedia revealed, as Raja
read it out, " persons living in Persia, after embracing Islam, tended
to append the meanings of 'Kafir', 'Lutera', 'Gulam', 'Kaala', etc., to
the word 'Hindu' which had the existing meaning of 'people living beyond
the Sind' ".
On November 2, the clouds cleared
and the sun shone on Chennai in more than one sense; the striking government
employees managed a patch - up with the unrelenting Chief Minister Jayalalitha
so that Deepavali could sail through smoothly. Wrath of the public
is not quite sweet, after all!
The Hindu enthusiasm looked like
that it will linger on, with Hindu Munnani's Rama.Gopalan announcing a
signature campaign in support of the Forcible Conversion Ban Act.
Email: mediamds@vsnl.com
