THE OTHER SIDE: M Karunanidhi

Curtains Down #2018

This year was not much good for me as I suffered a disease from which I am recovering and giving less time to writing but I thought to write a good bye post to bid adieu this year mixed with different feelings.

This year should be called as the year of marriages. We witnessed big fat weddings of Mukesh Ambani's daughter, Deepika Padukone-Ranvir Ranvir Singh, Priyanka Chopra-Nick Jonas, Sonam Kapoor-Anand Ahuja, than we have marriages of Kapil Sharma, Alka Yagnik's daughter, Kulbhushan Kharbanda's daughter, Saina Nehwal and many more other marriages. The year which started with Bheema Koregaon violence which become the epicenter for government and Dalits tussle increased when government made changes in Dalit atrocities bill.According to some experts this along with farmers distress made ruling party lose elections in Karnataka first and than in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chatisgarh.

There remain tussle in Indian judiciary and government also which subsided slowly and give way for new chief justice of the country Justice Ranjan Gogoi. Government criticism remain the highlight of most of the year as there role in not supporting removal of article 377 was not liked by LGBTQ community, Rafale scam, ruling party support to Kathua Rape accused, rigidity in making Aadhar mandatory, government's silent approval to mob lynching, Love Jihad killing, communal hatred were evident when some ministers seen supporting these ideologies. In the later part of the year the controversy over RBI Governor Urijit Patel's resignation also sparked controversy.

We have lost eminent personalities like Sridevi, Rita Bhaduri, Steven Hawkins, Vinod Khanna, M. Karunanidhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Kavi Kumar Azad, etc. Kerala floods remain the most devastating event of the year while MeToo campaign rocked almost every field of personalities.France's victory in FIFA World Cup 2018, kiki challenge, Nipah Virus, Statue of Liberty, Winter Olympics, Asia Cup 2018, Asian Games 2018, Under 19 Cricket World Cup and many other events remain in news in the year 2018.

Hoping that 2019 eases difficulties faced in 2018 I wish Happy New Year to my readers.

RIP Kalaignar - M Karunanidhi

Kalaignar literally translates into ‘scholar of arts’ or just artist the title earned by M Karunanidhi from his followers not for being a Tamil film actor but due to active role played in Tamil Nadu politics. M Karunanidhi breathed his last on 7th August 2018 at the age of 94 in Chennai after prolonged age related illness. He married thrice in his life and has four sons and two daughters from different wives among them M.K Stalin second son of his second wife is seen as his political successor.

Karunanidhi entered Tamil Nadu politics at an early age from anti-Hindi agitation and become part of Dravidian movement by joining DMK. Dravidian movement is associated with atheism and anti-Brahmin ideology the reason he was disliked by fundamentalist Hindus. He was a screenwriter in Tamil movies through which he extensively shared ideas of atheism and anti-Brahminism to masses. His screenplays consists of themes of anti-Brahminis, widow remarriage, abolition of untouchability, self-respect marriages, abolition of zamindari and abolition of religious hypocrisy. He rose to the rank of President of DMK and served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and twenty years between 1969 and 2011. It is a almost a miracle for me that an atheist ruled those people who are strong believers of scriptures and religion. He must have served them well.

In nineties I remembered to heard only two names of Tamil politics on national level i.e J Jayalalitha and M Karunanidhi. This shows how they rose to importance in national politics also. M Karunanidhi’s death put an end to an era of stalwarts of Tamil politics; the man who made anti- Hindi and atheism as his tool remain true to these ideologies till his end. He remained in controversy on the issues of corruption by his family members, for his statement on Setusamundaram and existence of Lord Ram. He was accused of connections with LTTE an organisation responsible for death of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and also of charges of nepotism.

As an observer of politics I can claim that a big void has been created in Tamil Nadu politics which is impossible to be filled by any other leader. No one can earn the support of masses like he does in his lifetime. With him the country has lost the true champion of social causes. RIP M Karunanidhi.