Chennai: A video denigrating Lord Murugan worship has become a political issue, triggering a slanging match between the AIADMK and DMK and providing grist to the BJP to go to town with it and organize protests all over the State on Saturday.
Though the functionaries of Karuppar Kootam, the You Tube channel that put out the video, had been arrested and their office raided by the police after a complaint was filed by some persons whose religious sensibilities were offended by the video, the issue dominated the States’ political arena.
A verbal duel began between the AIADMK and DMK with State Minister S P Velumani putting out a tweet wondering ‘why DMK President M K Stalin, who hastily issues statements on everything,’ had not reacted to the denigration of Lord Murugan.
Velumani asked if it was because Stalin and his party were opposed to the ‘majority’ in the name of upholding secularism, which was similar to the BJP’s political trope while attacking other parties.
Within hours, DMK organization secretary, R S Bharati, told media persons at the party headquarters that the DMK condemned the video and that Stalin had done it too.
Bharati referred to a false Twitter account started by someone in the name of Stalin and creating a wrong impression that the DMK would help Karuppar Kootam legally.
He said he would approach the police to initiate action against those who created the fake account and added that in an earlier occasion, too, a complaint was filed against such a fake account but no action was taken by the police.
He alleged that a ‘saffron gang’ was behind such things with a view to confusing the people who were behind the DMK, which had over one crore Hindu supporters.
As a secular party, DMK believed in what its founder C N Annadurai had said about ‘one race, one god,’ Bharati said and listed out the support that successive DMK governments, starting with that of M Karunanidhi, had extended to temples in their development and in organizing festivals.
Meanwhile, Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Sevvoor S Ramachandran, assuring legal action against Karuppar Kootam, said ‘Kantha Sasti Kavasam’ was a prayer song sung written by Baladevaraya Swamy and sung to seek the blessings of Lord Murugan.
Since the song is sung in all Tamil homes as Lord Murugan is the first god of the Tamil people, belittling it and giving wrong interpretation to the hymns were condemnable, he said.
Naam Tamilar party leader Seeman, too, condemned the video against Lord Murugan, whom he calls as his ancestor, and said that the Tamil god was appropriated by the Aryans. He was angry that the DMK was not speaking in favour of the Tamil god.
