All in the name of Ram

[Guest guest]

All in the name of Ram

 

Mr Karunanidhi, back to his old game of Hindu bashing, has said Mr

Advani's relation with the PM is not as tight as the BJP claims.

 

FROM S MURARI

DH NEWS SERVICE, CHENNAI:

 

 

Ram has become the focus of a battle of wits between two estranged

allies — the BJP and the DMK — in Tamil Nadu.

 

BJP All-India Secretary L Ganesan the other day compared Prime

Minister A B Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to Ram

and Bharatha to drive home the point that they are very close and

speculations about Mr Advani trying to upstage Mr Vajpayee are

unfounded.

 

Now that the DMK is out of the BJP-led NDA, its leader M Karunanidhi

is back to his old game of Hindu bashing.

 

In a new interpretation of Ramayana, the self-styled rationalist and

atheist has said normally Ram and Lakshman are held up as shining

examples of inseparable brothers. But it is not by mistake that Mr

Ganesan has invoked the name of Bharatha who took away even Ram's

footwear and forced him to walk barefoot in the forests during his

14 years of banishment.

 

(According to legend, Bharatha symbolically enthroned Ram's footwear

and held fort till his return.)

 

Mr Karunanidhi has, however, said those who know the Ramayana well

will understand why Mr Vajpayee, after his return from a recent

overseas tour, said he was disinclined to run for a third term again.

 

Mr Ganesan drew upon the Ramayana parallel after Mr Karunanidhi

attached a lot of significance to Mr Vajpayee's very recent

statement that though he was disinclined to run for a third term, he

decided to put his hat in the ring in order to "save the country

from slipping into chaos".