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Archanas over, Karunanidhi denounces tilak

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief Muthuvel Karunanidhi has forbidden the party's youth from applying tilak, the Hindu religious vermilion mark, on their foreheads.

"The youth have a moral duty to guide future generations and uphold the ideology of the Dravidian movement," Karunanidhi thundered at a marriage in the family of Transport Minister K Ponmudi in Villupuram recently.

Karunanidhi's diatribe against the tilak came after his public defence of mythological demon-king Ravana and attempts to replace Sanskrit archanas (prayers) in Hindu temples with controversially scripted ones in Tamil.

His exhortation to the youth followed an observation by the local administration minister who spoke before him. Mani, a senior DMK member, condemned the application of tilak to photographs of 'Periyar' E V Ramaswami Naicker, founder of the Dravidian self-respect movement, at functions in DMK families.

He also referred to an incident on his way to the wedding venue, when he was garlanded by a DMK youth wing leader Adishankar, who had a blood-red tilak on his forehead. "I mentioned it as a 'bloody wound' to some party leaders later," Karunanidhi said.

It did not end there, though. Taking off from where Karunanidhi left off, his nephew, former Union minister 'Murasoli' Maran said the day may not be far off when Periyar's pictures are adorned with poonool, the sacred thread of the Brahmins. Maran is credited with the DMK's revival of its 'anti-god, anti-Brahmin' political agenda.

The Hindutva forces have been quick to react. Hindu Munnani leader Ramagopalan, objecting to Karunanidhi's directive to his party cadres, asked if he could impose his views on party leaders. Senior DMK politician and assembly Speaker P T R Palanivel Rajan habitually wears a prominent tilak on his forehead. Palanivel Rajan's father, the late P T Rajan, was a leading light of the Justice Party, forerunner of the DMK.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has also taken exception to Karunanidhi's observation. "It is not an internal matter of the DMK," state BJP general secretary L Ganesan said. "It concerns the religious sentiments of Hindus."

State BJP president K M Lakshmanan was more direct. "How is it that Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal continues to sport a prominent kumkum tilak on her forehead?" he said.

Appreciating the chief minister's earlier statement that he would not impose his atheism on others, Lakshmanan said, "Karunanidhi cannot have one rule for his family and another for party cadres."

But Karunanidhi's directive has probably come too late in the day even for the 'anti-god, anti-Brahmin' DMK. Palanivel Rajan's tilak is symbolic of the one-time atheistic party's turnaround. Another example is former minister K Rajaram, a one-time aide of Periyar. Rajaram has become a devout Hindu now and does not hide the fact that he visits temples and sports a tilak, even if occasionally.

As is known, most women in the Karunanidhi-Maran household too sport the kumkum mark. Durga, wife of Karunanidhi's son M K Stalin, mayor of Madras, even has a private puja chamber tucked away in a wall cabinet in their Velachery home in Madras.

Karunanidhi too visited the famous Tiruvercaud temple in Madras last year, where he exchanged garlands with his wife. Though DMK rationalists tried to play down the incident citing other reasons for the visit, its significance was not lost on the public.

Karunanidhi has also been sporting a yellow shawl for the past five years or so. Though he denied that it was suggested by astrologers before the 1996 assembly election, which the DMK won in alliance with the Tamil Maanila Congress, he does not even change its colour and claims he has to wear it for "medical reasons".

But Karunanidhi did come down heavily in public on 'Andhiyur' Selvarasu, a state minister, when he made a 'fire-walk' offering at the Bannari Amman temple, near Coimbatore, after the DMK's electoral victory of 1996. He termed Selvarasu's action "barbaric".

But when public protests started mounting, DMK politicians explained away their leader's condemnation by referring to all kinds of offerings made by "corrupt" ministerial aides of J Jayalalitha, when the All-India Anna DMK general secretary was chief minister.

The DMK moved closer to religion when it was wooing the BJP before the Lok Sabha election last year. But with the BJP's ties with the AIADMK improving, the DMK seems to be having a rethink.

The rethink has also been necessitated by the BJP's falling stock since the election in November to four assemblies and the revived anti-minorities plank of the Hindutva forces. The party is also veering to its old socio-political agenda because people like Maran believe that alone can deliver the electoral goods.

Incidentally, the very day Karunanidhi delivered his sermon to party men, V Janakiraman, the controversial DMK chief minister of Pondicherry, participated in the kumbhabhishekam,kumkum from Sri Jayendra Saraswati, sankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham.

Clearly, whether Karunanidhi likes it or not, even sankaracharayas and tilaks are no longer unacceptable to a large chunk of the DMK.

The Tamil Nadu state page

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