Former BJP MP Ram Vilas Vedanti has done a Haji Yaqub act, with the statement that anybody who cut DMK leader Karunanidhi's head and tongue would get gold as much as his own weight.
The immediate provocation is Karunanidhi's remark on Lord Rama. The Dravidian leader's statements are unfortunate and not in a good taste. Such statements are bound to cause hurt to millions of Indians irrespective of their religion and caste.
But this not unexpected from DMK, as the Dravidian leaders especially the pioneering ones were staunchly anti-religion, anti-temple and anti-Brahmin. Karunanidhi said that Ramayana was a fiction and termed the existence of Rama as a Himalayan lie apart from saying that Lord Rama also used to drink.
Karunanidhi is also playing to the gallery just as the BJP is trying to woo electorate by rousing sentiments on Sethusamudram project (Rama Setu). Everyone is out to fool the common man and divert the attention from the real issues to emotive ones.
Does anybody remember that Vedanti is the same person who was also caught in the sting operation on six godmen who were shown on camera, promising to turn black money into white through donations for his trust. IBN 7 had aired the sting operation earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the VHP and BJP have distanced themselves from the remarks of Vedanti but they are not going to let the issue slip away. Togadia has urged activists of VHP to file 1000 FIRs against Karunanidhi. In Bangalore the house of Karunanidhi's daughter was attacked.
But the DMK's cadre has also threatened Vedanti and VHP activists to dare set foot on the soil of Tamil Nadu. But Vedanti, Haji Yaqub and the other politicians of their ilk, know that they can get away with irresponsible statements, their diktats or so-called 'fatwas' are mere gimmicks to grab attention.