Only those who were not familiar with literature were attacking lyricist Vairamuthu and that too without reading his article on Andal, said writers, including Sahitaya Akademi Award winner Sa. Kanthasami, Prabanchan and Su. Venkatesan.
In a joint statement, they said Mr. Vairamuthu had glorified the greatness of Andal in ten places and had quoted only in one place about the research scholars’ view on Andal. “The Tamil of Andal should be learnt by the atheist. We actually feel that he should not have expressed regret. But we understand his culture,” said writer Maalan , poet Muthulingam, Vennila, Tamizhachi Thangapandian and writer S. Ramakrishnan. Apart from film songs, Mr. Vairamuthu has written poems, short stories and novels, which made his contributions to Tamil literature exemplary. They alleged that some people were deliberately spreading wrong information about something he never even mentioned in his article ‘Tamizhai Andal’. This was an attempt to start communal riots. “We, Tamil writers, come together to strongly condemn this action,” the release said.
Instead of countering his opinion, some sections indulged in personal attacks and issued threats against him. This was unacceptable to anyone who believed in democracy, they said.
