AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

        First the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu speaks about Lord Ram in a language that at best belongs to the darkened bylanes of a local bazaar. It was vile and provocative, and Karunanidhi, who had made a career out of vulgar words, looked on smugly, while those who were hurt by his cheap shots felt a sense of helpless apoplexy. A sadhu in a distant land, in a show of extreme agitation, talks of some retaliation. But the DMK pounces on this stray, fringe remark and is trying to wear the mask of injured innocence rather desperately. Karunanidhi, always given to self promotion and grand standing, cries hoarsely that even if someone takes off his head, his address will remain in Tamilnadu. These are simply averments of a man to whom no publicity is cheap enough to court. But despite Karunanidhi’s hollow statements, his party men play true to type. They attacked the BJP’s office in Tamilnadu while the police apparently looked the other way. But this is DMK’s typical trait: Planned violence, vacuous rhetoric and venom-tipped attacks on those in the opposite camp. This is how the DMK came into being, and this is what it is doing.

        But while the mainline media sees the BJP trying to make political capital out of the Ram Sethu issue, the fact of the matter is that it is the DMK, which is beset with so many problems, that is trying to find a new grammar for the changing political syntax of the State. The DMK is driven to a political corner in the State by its own ally, the PMK. So it needs to re-invent itself and this it hopes to do through the Ram Sethu issue. That is why you can see an ill-conceived method and pattern to Karunanidhi’s mad words on Ram. Karunanidhi is playing the ultimate card of Tamil pride —— a desperate trump that he believes is still valid even in this new paradigm. But his lackeys belie the true game. Look at the foaming in the mouth of the Power Minister Arcot Veerasamy. ‘What guts this guy has to threaten our leader? They think we will keep quiet. We are ready to make any sacrifice to meet him. The VHP is a group of murderers. It is our duty to teach him a lesson. You have more opportunity to do that than I. I say, go and do your duty.’ This coming from a senior Minister, who has raised a career by sticking around Karunanidhi, tells the tale of low desperation in the DMK.

        As we keep pointing out in these columns, Karunanidhi’s atheism is bogus and cheap simply because he lacks the guts or honesty to attack any other religion apart from Hinduism. What is most distressing is the coarse and crude manner in which Karunanidhi has sought to voice his dissenting view even when he takes umbrage when anyone dares call him just Karunanidhi as opposed to his chosen moniker Kalaignar. His admirers, among them the Godless Marxists who revel in denouncing all things Hindu, are no doubt thrilled without bothering to ponderover the long-term problems of Karunanidhi’s uncivilised barbs. His appalling comments on Lord Ram, the Ramayan tradition and popular Hindu faith have the potential to inflame public opinion beyond Tamilnadu; revulsion has a tendency to manifest itself in the form of violent protest. Alas, the DMK itself is triggering such violence in Tamilnadu. Now where do we look for justice? Hey Ram!