Islam Faces flak
The Manonmaniyam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, handed a Ph.D certificate to Thirumavalavan, leader of VCK party (a Dalit outfit) on August 25 for his controversial thesis on the mass conversion of Dalits into Islam in Meenakshipuram in the 80’s. Puthiya Tamilagam (another Dalit outfit) president Dr. Krishnaswami, strongly objected to the MMS University awarding the Ph.D. He reasoned out, “more than 75% of the families that embraced Islam in early eighties reconverted to Hinduism, the data Thirumavalavan has provided in his thesis is wrong. This will only incite unwanted tension in the village.” In Meenakshipuram, there was neither economic development nor vertical growth in the social status of those who embraced Islam, he added. Interestingly, Thirumavalavan admitted that it was not for academic reasons that he had done the research but only to look into the question whether social status ascended after conversion to Islam. He claimed that the conversions were voluntary, only to be refuted by Hindu organisations. The debate rages.
Chennai’s Horror
Nervousness
One by one several worms crawl out of the Sofia can. Lois Sofia, 28, a research scholar, had tweeted about her intentions to confront BJP leader Tamilisai, prior to shouting the anti-BJP slogans on an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Thuthukudi. It was a planned attempt to malign the party. On a complaint by Tamilisai, police arrested Sofia at Thuthukudi. Sofia’s father’s letter to the police revealed that she belongs to a Dalit community, laying bare the fact that she enjoyed Dalit privileges after converting to Christianity. Some 16 advocates attended her bail petition hearing. Most of them belonged to a naxal outfit, exposing Sofia’s ideological leanings. She had been in the Church – Naxal instigated campaign against the Sterlite factory in Thuthukudi. The sudden uproar of freedom of expression to buttress Sofia’s dangerous behaviour on flight exposed who her backers were. DMK chief M.K.Stalin backed her to the hilt only to be snubbed by BJP leaders, who pointed out how a university student who opposed Karunanidhi receiving an honorary doctor’s degree was eliminated in the seventies. The Sofia episode exposed the nervousness of fund starved NGOs and Naxals following the plugging of loopholes in foreign fund norms by the Modi government.