Udhaya, Tamilisai spar over Girivalam
Chennai: Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalinhit out at former Telangana Governor and BJP leader Tamilisai Soundarajan, on Saturday accusing her of getting agitated over the ‘cunning tricks of modern day Aryans’ getting exposed and clarified that he had gone to the foothills of the Tiruvannamalai temple on Friday to only oversee the arrangement made for the safe and successful conduct of ‘Girivalam,’ in which devotees circumambulate the holy Arunachala Hills.
Tamilisai Soundarajan had mockingly said on Saturday that Udhayanidhi Stalin, perhaps moved by the recent remarks of Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalayan who had warned against speaking ill of Hindu religion, had become religious and undertaken the ‘Girivalam’ walk and that she was only happy that he had started doing it.
Quickly reacting to it, Udhayanidhi Stalin put out a message on X, saying there was no scope for the mixing of politics and religion in the State whatever hue and cry she might raise, adding that he circumambulated on the path that the devotees take to ensure that everything was right there and that it was a ‘right trek’ and not a devotional trek.
He said the BJP leader was holding the brief for Hindi, over which a controversy had broken out on Friday when Chief Minister M K Stalin had shot off an angry letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the ‘Hindi Month’ celebration at the Doordarshan office in Chennai and then objected to the omission of the phrase ‘Dravida Nal Thirunadu’ (Great Dravidian Land) from the Tamil anthem that was sung there.
Since the BJP leader’s broadside against the Deputy Chief Minister came the very next morning with no other provocation, he saw it as an expression of anger over the previous day’s finger pointing by the Chief Minister, who, in his X message, had asked a question, ‘Are you the Governor or an Aryan,’ straight to Governor R N Ravi who presided over the event at the Doordarshan office in Chennai.
Though the Governor, in his retort to the message, had accused the Chief Minister of making a racist remark, Udhayandhi had also used the same term, Aryan, in his rebuttal to the BJP leader in the State.
He also said that all DMK leaders took care of the interest of all and referred to the renovation of thousands of temples during the tenure of Stalin and M Karunanidhi ensuring that a temple car that was not pulled for many years started running due to his efforts.
Many other political leaders also reacted to the organization of the Hindi Month in Doordarshan office and also complaint about the renaming of ‘Pothigai’ channels as Doordharshan Tamil, besides flaying the tampering of the Tamil anthem, ‘Neeradum Kadaludutha,’ by dropping a line while singing at the event.