Karunanidhi : End of an era
The patriarch of Tamil identity and politics since the last eight decades, DMK president Muthuvel Karunanidhi has breathed his last at the age of 94. His persona wasn’t limited to politics alone. He was an MLC for nearly seven and half decades, and a Chief Minister for five terms and an active script writer for Tamil cinema for 50 years. If anything, Karunanidhi led a very colourful life that will remain unparalleled for many generations to come. He would have turned a centenarian in the next five years time. In his death, the last link to Dravida movement is lost forever.
He was a matchless writer and an excellent orator. He took over the reins of DMK from founder Annadurai in 1960, and he never looked back after that. Having come from very humble background, the rise of Karunanidhi is nothing less than that of a miracle. He climbed the pinnacle of success after facing way too many challenges. His accomplishments are no mean feat.
He was inspired at a very young age of 14, by Periyar Ramaswamy Nair, a rationalist who promoted a movement of tamil pride. Karunanidhi shared an unflinching bond with tamil film industry too. He wrote dialogues to many films and used that platform to promote his ideals, and thoughts. He firmly stood guard of Tamil Nadu, ensuring either Congress or BJP wouldn’t set their feet in the Dravida state. He never compromised on his ideals and rationales.
He was deeply influenced by left ideology in his early days and had even named his son Stalin, after the influential Russian revolutionary. An atheist to the core, he never visited any temples or places of worship or conducted any rituals.He had condemned the razing of Babri Masjid in 1992 by communal elements. He even voiced his criticism against the burning of Ravana idols during Ramleela events. He opposed the idea floated by Sangh Parivar on Ram Setu issue, asking proof to bolster the claim on the bridge being built by Lord Rama more than 17 lakh years ago.
He had maintained his distance from Mutts and religious institutions. Once Kanchi Kamakoti seer came to visit him, and this naturally held traction for the media and they gathered around Karunanidhi’s office. While the footage was being aired live, the Kanchi seer gifted Karunanidhi with a copy of Bhagavad Gita. His idea may have been to observe the response of Karunanidhi, and see if he would be embarrassed or something. The media persons were naturally very curious to watch the reaction.
Karunanidhi received the copy of the Bhagavad Geetha book, and in return, he gifted a book written by one of his followers Veerasami that was a critical analysis of Bhagavad Gita. Swamiji was forced to receive this return gift without contesting much. This is a testimony to Karunanidhi’s commitment to rationalism.
He had resisted the imposition of hindi by north India centric politics and fought to maintain the tamil pride all his life. But ever since Narendra Modi assumed office, hindi is being imposed on south Indian states. Karunanidhi had faith in the pluralism of India. He always opposed the hindutva mandate of Sangh parivar. He did not compromise on his rationalism even though he supported Vajpayee's NDA government. He will always be the king of people’s hearts since he took DMK party close to the people. Known for his political acumen, Karunanidhi brought Shivaji Ganeshan, M G Ramachandran and others to the forefront of Tamil cinema. But then choosing his own son as offsprings to lead the DMK party was widely criticized. People like Vaiko and others quit the party and joined the others or floated their own party. Karunanidhi looked rather helpless to see the communal forces make an entry into Tamil politics in the recent times.
Sangh parivar extended its wings in Tamil Nadu through names such as ‘Hindu Munnani’ in the last decade. Tamil Nadu which was known for its most rational thoughts had to ban a book written by Perumal Murugan, owing to the pressure exerted by communal forces. Though he’d obviously take sides of Tamil Nadu on Cauvery river water sharing issue, he was all for amicable settlement of this issue. He shared very good relationship with leaders from Karnataka. He had come to Karnataka to unveil the statue of poet Thiruvalluvar and has unveiled the statue of poet Sarvajna who wrote in Kannada.
With Karunanidhi’s death, a pall of gloom has descended over Tamil Nadu. Last year the state lost another leader such as J Jayalalitha. Now with Karunanidhi gone, both parties lack good cadre level leader who knows his way up. Though Stalin’s name is being heard, his acumen needs to stand the test of time. It is during such occasions that BJP’s Amit Shah would try to set his foot on Tamil soil. How would the Dravida parties and people respond? This would be a matter of interest in the coming days.
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Have only resigned as Delhi Congress chief, not joining any political party: Arvinder Singh Lovely
New Delhi, Apr 28: Arvinder Singh Lovely on Sunday said he has only resigned as chief of the Congress' Delhi unit and is not joining any other political party.
His clarification came after Congress ex-MLA Asif Mohammad Khan claimed that the BJP would field Lovely from the East Delhi constituency, replacing Harsh Malhotra.
"I have only resigned as Delhi Congress chief and I am not joining any political party," he said at a press conference at his residence.
Lovely said his resignation reflected the pain of Congress workers saddened by the fact that the "ideals they had been fighting for during the last seven to eight years" were being compromised.
"We are fighting the elections together but never did the Congress workers say that we are giving a clean chit to them or giving them credit for building schools and hospitals, which is far from the reality," Lovely said, referring to the party's tie-up with the AAP in Delhi for the Lok Sabha polls.
"Those who are saying that I have resigned out of anger over ticket (distribution), it is not like that. You all know that I introduced the candidates by holding a press conference three days ago," Lovely said.
Earlier in the day, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj asked in a post in Hindi on X, without naming anyone, if the BJP was changing its candidate for East Delhi.
Questioned about Bharadwaj's post and whether it hinted at him joining the BJP, Lovely said he only resigned as the Delhi Congress chief.
"Thanks for Bharadwaj's wishes. I think he takes decisions on behalf of all other parties. I have just cleared to you that I resigned from the post of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee president," Lovely said.
In a setback to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Lovely resigned as the party's Delhi unit chief, citing the alliance with the AAP as one of the reasons.
He said the Congress' Delhi unit was against the alliance but the party high command went ahead with it.
"The Delhi Congress unit was against an alliance with a party which was formed on the sole basis of levelling false, fabricated and mala fide corruption charges against the Congress party ... half of the cabinet ministers (of the party) are presently in jail on corruption charges," Lovely said in his resignation letter sent to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday.
"Despite that, the party (Congress) made a decision to ally with the AAP in Delhi. We respected the party's final decision ... I even went to the extent of visiting Mr (Arvind) Kejriwal's residence on the night of his arrest along with Mr Subash Chopra and Mr Sandeep Dikshit, despite the same being against my position on the matter," he said.
The Congress is contesting the Lok Sabha elections in an alliance with AAP in Delhi. As part of its seat-share arrangement, the Congress is contesting from three seats while AAP has fielded candidates from four constituencies in the national capital.
Lovely had resigned as chief of the Congress' Delhi unit in 2015, taking moral responsibility for the party's worst-ever performance in the assembly elections.
The Congress had failed to win a single seat in the 70-member House as AAP swept to victory in 67 constituencies and the BJP won three.
Lovely contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from East Delhi against the BJP's Gautam Gambhir and AAP candidate Atishi, securing 24 per cent votes.
Gambhir won the seat by 3.93 lakh votes ahead of Lovely in second.
Delhi's seven Lok Sabha seats will go to the polls in the sixth phase on May 25.
