TS Venkatesan
With the advent of civilisation, people worshipped trees and snakes. They later prayed the Pancha Boothangal, viz. air, earth, water, fire and sky. People at that time worshipped Surya, Vayu, Agni, and Indra. The idol worship came much later. Now we have so many faiths and several statues. Along with this cult, rationalists and atheists have also flourished.
The Periyar Paradox
The usual iconoclasts in Tamil Nadu have now turned idolaters for the sake of political survival. Ironical, isn’t it? In Tamil Nadu, rationalist leader EV Ramaswamy Naicker alias EVEVERA or Thanthai Periyar had started movement of breaking idols and adorning chappal maalas to gods.
In the name of opposing Brahmin domination in all sectors, he made personal attacks on them. His followers cut the sacred threads (yajnopavita or janeu or poonal in Tamil) and tufts which were revered symbols of Brahmins
Periyar’s so-called followers have installed statues of him all over the State and started garlanding them on his birth and death anniversaries. He fought against idol worshipping and even said those who put up statues for God are barbaric. This is irony. Now we have stone and bronze statues of Periyar, CN Annadurai, MG Ramachandran, K Kamaraj, Shivaji Ganesan, Jawharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi,
B R Ambedkar, epic Silappadikaram heroine Kannagi, poetess Avvaiyaar and so on.
What sparked off a raging controversy now is the tweet (which was withdrawn after hullabaloo) of BJP leader H Raja who said, like uprooting of Lenin statue in Tirupura, Periyar’s will meet the same fate in Tamil Nadu soon. Statues of social reformer and Dravidian movement icon EV Ramasamy was found damaged in two places in the State.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned the incidents of vandalism of statues across the country and said that stern action would be taken against those found guilty. Raja disowned the tweet putting the blame on his team which put it. But the so-called Tamil Nationalists and Periyar followers vent out their displeasure, desecrated statues of Dr Ambedkar and BJP leaders, and threw petrol bombs on BJP office. They also wrote and spoke innuendos against Raja and his caste. These anti-Hindu claptraps want to dethrone the Modi sarkar by hook or by crook.
Some overzealous cadres cut the tuft and sacred threads of Brahmins. This created ripples among Brahmin community, who took up to streets condemning their cowardly acts. The obvious result, over the years, has been the creation of a large cesspool of latent anger and hurt among large sections of Hindus that has failed to drain or dry away. This was explicitly seen when cine lyrist James Victor aka Vairamuthu had heaped on Andal Nachiyar, the goddess revered by Hindus all over the world. Kanimozhi the self-acclaimed atheist Rajya Sabha member and daughter of Karunanidhi of the DMK, had also made uncharitable remarks on Lord Venkateswara of Tirumala hills.
Dismantled Throughout
During the disintegration of Soviet Union in early 1990s and after the shock to the World Communism, thousands of Vladimir Lenin statues were pulled down. Out of 7000 dismantled Lenin statues, 2000 were in Russia, 4300 in Ukraine and 680 in other former USSR states. Mao Zedong, commonly known as Chairman Mao who led to the establishment of the Communist regime in China met the same fate. While in his own lifetime Mao assured that some 2000 statues including a 120 feet gold plated one were installed across China, opposing hero worship in 1980, Mao”s statues were dismantled. Two years ago his 120 ft gold plated statue was vandalised too.
It is not our intention to justify the desecration of two statues in India or worldwide. For that matter, none should demolish the statues of other faiths. But India has unique tradition where statues and idols are being revered. It is a tradition started by our great Rishis, Saints, Alwars and other religious seers.
Tamil Twist
But what is happening in Tamil Nadu is politics over statues. They are mainly the Modi baiters. They include Dravidian parties and small outfits including the newly launched Kamal Hassan’s Makkal Needhi Maiyam with minority backing. What we drive home is that the people, who are against idols, should understand that no leader, no party or cult is permanent.
Srinivasan of Hindu Munnani informs that, “Out of the two incidents of damages to Periyar statues, Left cadre were involved in one, while the other was done by a drunken CRPF personnel. But DMK and Dravidar Kazhagam accused Sangh Parivar and demanded their ban in the state. These parties peep into matters and wish to make a mountain out of a mole. The truth was different from their accusation. Will they apologise for that? No. They won’t. They are not that sort of caliber politicians. Their intention is to create bad name for Modi and the State Government.”
The statue vandalising row was turned in communal hatred. Stirred by DMK, Christian, Muslim outfits raged against Ram Rajya Rath yatra. These parties misused social media to garner support for their move and against the yatra, but it fizzled out. It made the yatra more popular among masses. All over its route it received rousing and respectful welcome.
VHP’s ‘Ram Rajya Rath Yatra’, is aimed at mobilising support for building a Ram temple in Ayodha. When it entered Tamil Nadu on March 20, leader of opposition M K Stalin raised an issue during zero hour, saying it was “dangerous to allow the procession enter Tamil Nadu”. P Dhanapal expunged most of Stalin’s speech. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisami assured the House that there would not be any law and order problem as the procession had passed through four states without any problem before entering Tamil Nadu. He pointed out, “The yatra started at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh on February 13. After crossing Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala it has entered Tamil Nadu. There were no problems in any of these states.”
TN BJP president Tamilisai Soundarajan told media that the yatra, after covering four states, reached Tamil Nadu peacefully, but the Opposition parties in the State hit the streets. She was referring to protests by DMK and various pro-Tamil and Muslim outfits the previous day when the yatra entered the state from Kerala. How the political row which started due to deliberate misdeeds of others has been turned to attack Hindus and Sri Ram, is self-explanatory here.
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