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Even as an eleven-member Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court of India is seized with deciding upon the definition of "minorityeducational institution" for months, the Tamilnadu Chief Minster J.Jayalalitha did last week something unprecedented. She snubbed the managers of the Church-run educational institutions in Tamilnadu with threats of unleashing ESMA on them, when they bandied that well-worn weapon of "in protest, we shall close down minority institutions" on October 24. They did. With bated breath, the state, nay, the entire country awaited the follow-up action on the CM's warning. Which came thick and fast. On October 25, Jayalalitha Government slammed notices on over 400 institutions run by minority outfits demanding explanation for the unauthorized closure on October 24.
The managers, as is common knowledge now, were protesting against the 'Tamilnadu Forcible Conversions Prevention Ordinance' slated for tabling as a Bill in the State Assembly now in session. Pathetically enough, the protest meeting on October 24 with an assortment of Padris belonging to several denominations - with Muslim League's Sulaiman Sait and his ilk thrown in - seated on the dias was hijacked as it were by a jittery Karunanidhi and his cohorts in the Left. Leaders of Congress and Tamil Maanila Congress gleefully found themselves there. They are never tired of pleasing their leader. Later State Congress President S. Balakrishnan mouthed his fears thus: "they (Christians) run so many schools, hospitals and orphanages. If they are antagonized thus, it is the Hindus who will be the sufferers because most of the beneficiaries of these institutions are Hindus". Ahoy! Hindu society has at last discovered a Hindu leader - with what sort of a mindset!
Positioning themselves in the precincts of a church - St.Andrews Church,Egmore, in this case - this secular brigade chose to spit anti-Hindu venom, thus: 1. DMK's Karunanudhi, in particular, roared "we shall not permit a national legislation banning conversion" as it had been demanded by Kanchi Sankaracharya! (Late O.P. Tyagi who tabled in Lok Sabha a private member's bill demanding ban on coversions might smile wryly from heavens!) 2. The meeting religiously adopted a resolution demanding "a ban on the VHP, the RSS and the Sangh Parivar", in addition, of course, "the withdrawal of the ordinance"("We shall continue to fight" said Karunanidhi putting the managers of the Christian institutions right there in a still more awkward position!).
Karunanidhi has more than one reason to be jittery. One: this year, "the Cauvery problem" failed to yield adequate dividends in terms of political mileage, what with the monsoons, albeit delayed, literally watering down emotions in both the riparian states of Karnataka and Tamilnadu. This left Karunanidhi with no issue to fight for. A state wide bandh called by the DMK's labour union and the left wing ones proved to be a flop just this week. So he promptly hitched his political fortunes to this blatantly communal anti-Hindu bandwagon. Two: the Jayalalitha government last fortnight resorted to playing 'the raid card' in the same fashion as the earlier DMK regime: it tried to show former Public Works minister of the DMK government Durai Murugan, in bad light by unearthing "unaccounted assets" totting up to Rs.4 crores in a series of raids by the state government's anti - corruption sleuths.
Meanwhile, Hindu society expressed its displeasure at the state Opposition's betrayal in no uncertain terms: the week long demonstation of its solidarity with the Jayalalitha government bore it out: The Hindu organisations quickly entered the scene. Though the massive anti - conversion conference in Madurai in which over 22,000 people participated and listened to a wide spectrum of Hindu religious leaders including Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Maruthachala Adigalal of Perur Adeenam, Swami Kamalatmananda of Ramakrishna Math and the swamis of Mada Amirthananda Mayi Ashram and Chinmaya Mission, Thiruvaduthurai Adeenam, Dharampura Adeenam, Sri Ramakrishna Thapovanam etc., who exhorted Hindu parents of school going children to boycott Christian institutions found to be indulging in proselytisation and organized Hindu schools. Dr. Praveen Togadia of VHP and Shri Rama Gopalan of Hindu Munnani and Sri Jayadev, Dakshina Kshetra Pracharak of RSS warned Hindus to beware of the Christian - Muslim gang up in Bharat to the detriment of Hindu interests, while Christians and Muslims were at each other's throat elsewhere.
Hindu Munnani's thousand - strong procession marched along Anna Salai, the artery of Chennai, raising slogans hailing the ordinance. The series of demonstrations organised in turn by VHP and BJP, as well as the poster campaign of ABVP helped keep up the tempo. Sadhus and Matadhipatis did not lag behind. The proposed Harijan rally in support of the ordinance on sands of Chennai beach next Thursday (Oct. 31) is bound to correct the notion that conversion is justified because the evil of untouchability persists. Elite of the city irked by the World Bank's eerie move to directly fund "faith related NGOs" in countries like Bharat, are to meet under the Vigil banner early next month to sort it out. All the 234 MLAs and all 60 MPs of Tamilnadu were alerted through a 8 page document containing conversion records in the state as well as instances of Hindu population asserting and putting up Hindu educational institutions.
Jayalalitha eyes on the Hindu vote
bank, with Karunanidhi angling for the other, is the routine comment on
this development. It is only half true. The former has already tasted victory
in this by putting up as AIADMK candidate a Hindu in Vaniyambadi, always
a Muslim - represented constituency, in the Assembly byelections a couple
of months back and saw him get through. Karunanidhi cannot be so sure of
his new friends having their own axes to grind. But better he dives, as
he himself has recently announced, headlong in rooting out Hindutva "lock,
stock and barrel" from Tamilnadu for which, as a BJP functionary put it,
Karunanidhi is too small. A tall order indeed, even for the tallest of
Tamilnadu political leaders!
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