Chennai: The heated debate over Tiruvalluvar’s identity saw the BJP general secretary P Muralidhar Rao lashing out on Monday at the DMK president M K. Stalin for the latter’s objection to the BJP picturing the Tamil poet-savant as a Hindu.
Taking to twitter, Rao said the DMK leaders’ rant on BJP “is in fact against Tamil and Tamil culture”. “I challenge Stalin to say vibhuti on forehead is anti-Tamil. If he has guts to say that putting vibhuti on forehead is anti-Tamil, then Tamilians will definitely send him off”, said Rao.
In another tweet, Rao said Tiruvalluvar was “Saint not a DMK leader”, one who had lived for universal values which are applicable for entire humanity and never favoured sectarian values. “@mkstalin must desist from narrow interpretation of Saint Thiruvalluvar. DMK always betrayed Tamilians in last few decades for power”, said Rao.
Needless to say the BJP leader quickly sank into a heap of criticism and abuse on the social media, with many twitterati telling Rao to first get his party to at least beat the NOTA score in the TN elections. ‘What do you know about Tamil Nadu and Tamil people, let alone being familiar with the sayings of Tiruvalluvar?’ was the refrain.
State Tamil language and culture minister Mafoi K Pandiarajan injected some wisdom and sobriety in what was getting to be a slugging match over a saintly scholar whose sayings centuries ago bear torch to righteous living even today. “It’s the choice and the right of each individual to define Tiruvalluvar and interpret his religious leaning”, said Minister Pandiarajan, adding, “Time has come to get Unesco recognition for Thiruvalluvar.”
