NONE DENIED Karunanidhi the right to stick to his stand that none called Lord Rama existed.  There is no proof to that effect.  Further it has not been proved that Lord Rama constructed the bridge or was an expert engineer.  Rama did not graduate in engineering just as Karunanidhi did not graduate or postgraduate in Tamil although he holds a doctorate from Madras University. 

When the DMK assumed power in Tamilnadu, Madras University was arm-twisted into conferring doctorates on personalities chosen by the ruling party.  All the same one has to admit that Karunanidhi is an authority on the Tamil language because he holds a doctorate but Rama was not an engineer, because he did not hold a B.E, assuming Rama ever existed.  One can extend the logic further and state that Karunanidhi is far, far ahead of Tamil poets like Thiruvalluvar, Avvaiyar, Naaladiar and Nakkeeran.  After all, they did not hold a Ph D a la Karunanidhi, did they?   (Not long ago, Karunanidhi ensured that he was honoured as the ‘best poet in world’ by his protégés.  Surely he is a poet but not the best poet in the world, even if one is talking of only Tamil poets.  There was one Kannadasan who was widely regarded as the best Tamil poet after Subramanya Bharathiar. The rationalist in Karunanidhi chose to ignore this fact at the time).

A professed atheist and rationalist, Karunanidhi is entitled to his own views.  But a professed atheist and rationalist should also have the courage of his own convictions.  Unfortunately when one reads his statements, one is reminded of something as hollow as Dutch courage. 

If Valmiki wrote many things about Lord Ram, being a writer himself, Karunanidhi should understand that every writer tends to eulogize about his favourite character.  Poets have always tried to be in the good books of masters who are generally puffed up with their own importance. 

Under the late Annadurai, the DMK used the late M G Ramachandran (MGR) as a cash cow and vote-catcher.  Karunanidhi never tired of calling MGR as a philanthropist par excellence a la ‘Paari’, the renowned philanthropist-king.  (This king, during a routine visit to the forest, found a creeper which was struggling to keep itself alive since it had no tree or other support to wind itself around.  Moved by its plight, the king decided to leave his chariot behind so the creeper could wind itself around the chariot and grow).  But Karunanidhi let the cat out of the bag when his friendship with MGR soured, leading to the split of the DMK in the post-Annadurai phase.  “MGR’s announcements of donations have remained just that – announcements; if at all they (the donations) materialised, the money would arrive in dribs and drabs,”  he remarked sarcastically.  Similarly, Valmiki may have gone overboard in praising Rama but unlike Karunanidhi, did not rue it.  Unlike Karunanidhi he did not expect anything in return from Ram.  He saw the perfect human being in Ram – a devoted son, an affectionate brother, a duty-conscious king and a doting husband who, in spite of being a king, chose to remain monogamous, much the way Thiruvalluvar of Thirukkural fame has laid down.   

The culture of the Rama Bhaktas is condemnable – none supports their burning down a bus which led to the death of a couple of innocent passengers in the process.  At the same time, Karunanidhi should think of the so many innocent people, who died during the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamilnadu by self-immolating themselves at the behest of their ‘Thalaivars” like him (leaders), all in the name of opposing the imposition of Hindi!  What is the plight of the widowed women and orphaned children they left behind?  Has Karunanidhi taken care of all these women and children the way he took care of his own children and women?  His own children and grand children pursued education in English medium schools (not Tamil medium schools).  Dayanidhi Maran, the former minister and Karunanidhi’s blue-eyed boy until recently, addressed press conferences in Hindi!  But the common man was denied this privilege with the result that he could not find jobs in the industrial belts of the north whereas Karunanidhi’s kith and kin went to US to pursue higher education!  Born a Teluguite, Karunanidhi (like the other Teluguite Periyar) succeeded in convincing everyone that the Tamils are a fanatic community!  Fortunately for him, the Tamils still put up with him!

Karunanidhi tries to obfuscate the issue by stating that vested interests are opposed to the Sethu Samudhram project.  While they are all for the project, they want the Rama Setu to be spared at least as a monument if not for mythological or historical reasons, particularly when it is within the realm of possibility.  I want the Setu to be spared too for similar reasons and mind you, I am not a theist.  If Karunanidhi wants to invoke ‘scientific temper’ to defend himself, I would request him to remind himself that the so-called Aryan-Dravidian is just a figment of his imagination. He may want to cling to it since he needs a plank and I do not grudge it.  But DNA tests have proved that the so-called Aryan-Dravidian divide is just a figment of imagination.  Unlike in the case of Rama, here is solid proof that the divide does not exist.  If Karunanidhi is the rationalist that he claims he is, he should immediately stop exploiting this plank.

Alternatively he should prove that he has the courage of his own convictions, a la Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari (CR).  CR publicly advocated capitalism and fearlessly criticised Nehruvian socialism.  Jawaharlal Nehru responded by calling CR a stooge of USA.  What is happening today?  We are practising capital-ism although we euphemistically call it globalisation.   When Sardar Patel advocated linguistic division of India, CR responded by commenting that it was an immature solution from an immature politician! What is happening today?  Indians have become foreigners within their own country.  The country should have been divided not along linguistic lines but along geographical contiguities.  Of course, it is not my argument that CR was always right.  But remember one needed guts in those days to take on the likes of Patel and Nehru but CR did just that because he had the courage of his own convictions.  He risked becoming unpopular by doing so but all the same held on to his views since he was convinced that his views were right.