Spontaneous ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ from rural Tamil youth
“After RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said that ‘All Indians must raise the slogan Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ controversies that do not add to the nation’s glory have arisen” – this is how the editorial of ‘Thuglak’ Tamil weekly dated March 30 began. It is sad that the reputed magazine edited by Cho Ramaswamy also chose to commit the mistake of misquoting a person like Sarsanghchalakji who had simply said “some people increasingly prevent the youth from saying ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and so the youth should be taught to say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ from the depth of their hearts”. Heartening news from far off villages reveals that youth are firmly for ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. This report in THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS of March 24 is a sample: “The mortal remains of soldier Vijayakumar K, killed in the recent avalanche in Kargil sector was laid to rest at his native village, Vallapramapuram near Sankarankovil in Tirunelveli district, with full military honours on March 23. Hundreds of villagers paid their last respect to the 23-year-old deceased soldier. The mortal remains reached the village and taken directly to his house. Youth from the village and nearby areas shouted Bharat Mata Ki Jai. Many call Vallapramapuram as ‘Valla ranuva puram’ as a large number of youth from the village are serving the Army (Ranuvam is the Tamil word for army)”.
Panch Pandavas minus Krishna!
Nothing serious. But the numeral ‘five’, as any other number, triggers innate cultural emotions, as it did with a CPI functionary in the poll bound Tamilnadu. When actor turned politician, DMDK’s Vijaykant threw his lot with the four party (CPI,CPM. VCK and MDMK) ‘People’s Welfare Alliance’ (PWA) on March 23, CPI satae secretary Mutharasan blurted out, “We are five and so we are the Panch Pandavas”. Vaiko of MDMK took it forward and described Vijayakant as Dharmaputra, himself a Arjuna and VCK’s Thirumavalavan as Bhima CPI and CPM were left out but names of Nakul and Sahadev remained unuttered!). The Communists went ahead and talked of facing ‘Kurukshetra’ as Pandavas. (The funny part of it all is that It is not a five-party alliance but a seat adjustment between Vijayakant’s DMDK and the PWA, after all!).
Sahasra Chandra Darshan of Kanchi Seer
In 1992-93 two well meaning Harijan leaders, Ilaiya Perumal and Dr. Vallal Peruman, were vying with each other to construct a temple at Adhanoor in Thanjavur district for Harijan saint Nandanar, one of the 63 nayanmars. Neither was ready to give the opportunity to the other. At this juncture, Kanchi Sankaracharya Shri Jayendra Saraswati Swami had a talk with both the leaders and brought about a consensus namely, the Kanchi Sankara Mutt itself would bear the cost of construction. Accordingly, Sri Jayendra Saraswati himself visited Adhanoor and laid the foundation stone for the temple, thus bringing various sections of Hindu society together. The same unifying nature of the seer was brought to light by BJP’s all India President Sri Amit Shah along with Shri Ram Madhav, General Secretary BJP at Chennai on March 23. He was in Chennai to pay obeisance to Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swami on the seer’s ‘Sahasra Chandra Darshan’ (completion of age 84) function. Speaking on the occasion, Sri Amit Shah said: "Be it east, west, south or west of the country, for all the people, Kanchi Mutt is the guiding centre. The acharya has travelled the length and breadth of Gujarat. When a big clash was looming large between two communities, the seer held talks and restored normalcy in Gujarat. When Sri Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat, Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swami was gratefully honoured for his services to society. My prayer to the almighty is that Swamiji should guide society and the Mutt should continue to guide the Sanathan Dharma”.
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