DMK working president M.K. Stalin has reiterated that his party does not believe in criticising individual religious beliefs.
Tweeting about lyricist Vairamuthu’s comments on Andal, Mr. Stalin said, “The DMK doesn’t believe in criticising the private beliefs of people — be it Hinduism or any other religion. Despite Mr. Vairamuthu expressing his regret, it is condemnable that he has been threatened with violence.”
VCK general secretary D. Ravi Kumar, whose party had demanded that BJP leader H. Raja be arrested under the National Security Act, said: “H. Raja has been hijacking frivolous issues and blowing them out of proportion. This sort of coercive politics should be countered in a concrete manner.”
The DMK’s official spokesperson and joint secretary, Media Relations, Tamizhan Prasanna, said Dravidian parties, the DMK in particular, have taken care of the interests of religious Hindus in a much better manner. “When DMK became a political party, it became a party not just for the atheists, but for everyone. The DMK will neither break the ‘pillaiyar’ idol nor will it worship it. At the same time, we wanted people of all castes to become priests in Hindu temples, we created the Samathuvapuram, etc. We are opposed to Hindu fascism,” he said.
Vairamuthu clarifies
Meanwhile, Mr. Vairamuthu clarified that he had used the word devadasi (Servant of God) in the same positive connotation as the original authors Professors MGS Narayanan and Kesavan Veluthat did in the article ‘Bhakti Movement in South India’. “My intention is to glorify Andal. I request you to appeal to your intellect, set aside raw emotions. Having lived and worked for Tamil for the past forty-six years, I would never hurt the sentiments of Tamil society. I sincerely believe that the purpose of writing is to spread love and joy,” he said.
