Parmanand Pandey, Secretary General: IPC
It is often said that ‘don’t speak against any dead person’. But can this logic be applied to demons like Ravan, Kans, Duryodhan or monsters like Hitler, Mussolini, Changez Khan, Mahmud of Ghazni or Mao Dezong?
If there is a saying, “Speak no ill of the dead” then there is another saying of the equal strength, “Truth must be told”. Speaking truth is an onerous duty and it must be discharged, howsoever unpalatable it might be.
M. Karunanidhi, a doyen of Tamil politics for more than 60 long years, passed away the day before yesterday at the old age of 94. He was like a comet on the political firmament of Tamil Nadu politics for more than 60 years. He had committed certain egregious and Himalayan blunders that the posterity will never forgive him. He was the person who drove a wide wedge between the North and the South, which will take many more years to bridge.
The first and foremost disservice of Karunanidhi for the country was to create hysteria against Hindi among Tamilians. It is because of him that Tamil Nadu people could not assimilate themselves with the rest of the country for a long period of time. His hostility towards Hindi was in the extreme. In fact, he thrived on the anti-Hindi politics and created so much bitterness for a language like Hindi that was accepted with open arms by Tamilians. Even Raja ji (C Rajagopalachari), who was in the forefront of popularising Hindi in south India was capitulated by persons like Karunanidhi to become indifferent towards Hindi. It was he and his Guru Annadurai, who propounded the theory of ‘Dravid’ and ‘Aryans’ which is totally fake, unrealistic and highly superficial.
It is difficult to understand his hatred for Upper caste Hindus except for the vote bank politics that he pursued. He was born in the community of Nadaswaram (percussionists), who get their livelihood because they beat drums outside the temples. Although, he claimed to be an Atheist, yet he was highly superstitious and used to wear a yellow shawl ( angavastram) throughout his life to ward off evil forces. His way of mocking, chiding and ridiculing particularly the Brahmins was in extremely bad taste. When there was the case being heard in the Supreme Court on Ram Setu, he shot from his hip by asking a preposterous question like from which engineering college Lord Ram had got His degree which qualified Him to become an engineer to make a Setu? But Karunanidhi did not have the courage to utter even a word against any other religion which is enough to make him a suspect of rationalism. Hindus were like a punching bag for him.
Karunanidhi had hardly any respect for his political adversaries and he always spoke most uncharitably against Indira Gandhi or J. Jayalalitha. Shankaracharya was falsely implicated and arrested by J. Jayalalitha in a case of murder only because of the one-upmanship of M. Karunanidhi, who had threatened that if the Pontiff was not arrested he would launch a statewide agitation against the Brahmin Chief Minister. As a result of it, Shankaracharya was arrested but was honourably exonerated.
Karunanidhi had been a hypocrite throughout his life. He had the weakness for women and had children from at least his three wives. His aversion for Brahmins did not prevent him from bringing a bride for his family from the famous clan of Brahmins, who are the owners of the Hindu newspaper.
He was responsible for the deterioration of the relationship between India and Sri Lanka. He left no stone unturned in whipping up the feeling of Tamil Eelam among Srilankan Tamils compelling the late Rajiv Gandhi to send the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to Northern Sri Lanka for establishing peace in Jaffna and Batticaloa. These areas were burning because of the ethnic Tamil agitation. Hundreds of Jawans and officers of Indian Army were killed for nothing unwept, unsung. Despite the best intentions of winning the hearts of Tamil people, the poor Rajiv Gandhi remained a sore in their eyes and ultimately the good-hearted (Rajiv Gandhi) was killed by Tamil terrorists.
It was Karunanidhi who started the many obnoxious schemes of doling out gifts in cash and kind to people for their votes. He was also responsible for opening up the substandard engineering, medical and law colleges where one could get a degree of his/her choice on payment of hefty capitation fees. However, credit goes to his craftiness that despite being a parochial leader he had his presence felt at the national level. It is an open secret that he and his family was sunk deep into corruption from top to toe yet he is being paid tributes in a manner as he was a great visionary.
How pathetic is the condition of the media in our country which is awash only with Karunanidhi since yesterday? Four brave soldiers of the Indian Army, including a Major, were killed in Kashmir while defending the motherland but the news of their supreme sacrifices has been consigned to corners in both print and electronic media. It is beyond anybody’s comprehension why the newspapers and electronic channels of northern India have gone berserk over Karunanidhi, where his following was almost next to nil? How sensitive is our media to the brave martyrs for the country is not far to seek? After all, Karunanidhi was in the moribund state for more than two years.