Washing the Sins of 1971

To set right and erase the historic disgrace accorded to Shri Ram, Sita and other divine icons by the self-proclaimed rationalist, atheist E.V. Ramaswamy-led Dravidar Kazhagam in Salem in 1971, the BJP cadres gathered on the same day this year to garland the Hindu gods.

On January 14 this year at a function in Chennai organised by Tamil weekly ‘Thuglak’ founded by comedian turned lawyer cum editor par excellence Cho Ramaswamy, superstar Rajini Kanth in a casual and unintentional way made a comparison. He said those who read ‘Thuglak’ are said to be genius and those who carry ‘Murasoli’ (DMK mouthpiece) are the cadre of DMK party. This irked the vassals of Dravidar Kazhagam, DMK and its fringe outfits to make noise about his comparison and misinformation.

Getting support for his comments, Rajini made known his stand firm by saying there was no need to apologise or regret. What the BJP and others could not succeed in taking the DK and DMK for their anti-Hindu utterances and stand, Rajini’s spontaneous comparison had achieved. The magic curtain that protected them of their twisted facts on religion and gods have now been slowly vanishing. Now the DK and DMK had tried all their tricks in their bag to deny no such thing had happened in Salem.

When more and more evidence by way of paper clippings, speeches of DK leader Veeramani have surfaced, they are trying to divert the main issue. Being cornered with evidence they have to admit the wrong that was staged 49 years ago, the DK and DMK had to eat their own humble pie. This had helped Hindus to understand these parties fully and helped them to unite.

After seeing the CAA protest steered by DMK and its allies, allegations of Pakistan funding, meeting of DMK president MK Stalin and MP Kanimozhi after their release, the Kolam protest fame Gayatri Khandhadai’s links with Pakistan-based ‘Bytes for All’, DMK’s protests when the Centre abrogated Article 370, getting flashed in Pakistan media, all made right-thinking people to know their true colour.

Be that as it may, in Salem on January 24 more than 150 BJP workers, led by party’s Salem district president RP Gopinath, took out a rally carrying garlanded portraits of Shri Ram and Sita. However, as the rally was held defying police, around 62 persons courted arrest. They planned to take out the procession and end where in 1971 Periyar took out. But the police denied permission.

However, they garlanded the photos of Shri Ram, Sita and other gods and goddesses. Former TN BJP president and MLA, KN Lakshman, who was an ABVP functionary, had witnessed the 1971 Salem event, came to the function despite his age. His presence rekindled the spirit among those present there. The BJP workers commenced the rally by singing bhajans at Srinivasa Park in Sevvapet, from where the Dravidar Kazhagam took out its anti-superstition rally. Earlier, the portraits of God were showered with flowers, garlanded and pujas were performed.

Gopinath said, “The rally was held to wipe away the 50 years of disrespect befallen on Shri Ram and Sita exactly on this day (January 24) in 1971 in Salem during a rally organised by DK leader Periyar. In 1971 allegedly, it was at the same place, in an anti-superstition rally Ram and Sita pictures were taken naked with a garland of slippers.

The police had denied permission to BJP cadre from proceeding further. This resulted in a commotion. As they refused to budge, 62 cadres were arrested but were later released in the evening on the same day.

BJP functionary Raghupathy pointed out that in the anti-superstition procession in 1971 and others till date, the DK and others target only Hindu gods and their traditions. They do not have guts to point out the same in other religion fearing the consequences they have to face. MGR came out of the rationalist camouflage by visiting temples openly to show his faith. Jayalalithaa never hesitated to show her pious devotion to Hindu gods. She was the first person to support the karseva in 1991 by saying “if the temple is not built at Ayodhya then where else?”. At the same time, she balanced her acts by adopting minority appeasement schemes to garner their votes. She even brought anti-conversion law but later withdrew fearing electoral defeat.

Rajini’s speech had made the people sit and think about the ground reality and pseudo-secularism being followed by DMK, Congress, left and other fringe parties and imminent danger at the horizon. It has polarised Hindu vote bank and if he stands electoral test, Hindu votes which now are being cast to AIADMK would go to him. BJP and Rajini would split the Hindu votes, whereas the DMK would gain by minority vote bank due to its appeasement policies.