VSK TN
Chennai Sandesh
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August 26, 2013
The stark reality that Tamilnadu is a border state
Ramanathapuram, Nagapatinam and Cuddalore are coastal districts of Tamilnadu. On August 25, coastal villages in these districts were alerted by tom-tom to look for suspicious movements of persons. This action follows a unanimous telephone call which said 35 terrorists have infiltrated Tamilnadu with the intention of causing major disasters. Terrorists’ attacks are normally reported in Border States of the country like Punjab and Assam. People of Tamilnadu have now understood that Tamilnadu is also a border state, the sea being the border. Central security forces have increased their vigil along Tamilnadu coastline.
Two issues that caused parochial politics to transform into national politics
Two issues have cropped up in Tamilnadu. One is the release of the Tamil film ‘Madras Café’ which faced stiff resistance in Tamilnadu because the film depicts LTTE in a poor light so that Rajiv Gandhi Government’s decision could be justified. The other issue is the participation of Government of India in the forthcoming Commonwealth Meet in Colombo. As usual, Tamil outfits with separatists’ overtones have jumped into the protest aimed at highlighting the atrocities on Tamil-speaking operation in Sri Lanka by Rajapakshe Government. So far, issues like these were raked up by the Tamilnadu political parties with separatists’ past. That made every issue a ‘Tamil issue’, thus denying it the nation wide support. This time both these issues were taken up by BJP. The Bombay unit of BJP opposed screening of ‘Madras Café’. The Tamilnadu unit of BJP hit the roads in protest against Congress Government participation in the Common Wealth meet. This is clearly a departure from parochial politics to nationalist politics in Tamilnadu.
When thousand enthusiasts swarmed a city college…….
Ramaswamy and Meenakshi last week enjoyed a Samskritic weekend. They found themselves in a City College in Chennai on both days (24-25 August). The entire campus was agog with competitions in katha kalakshepam (spiritual discourse), power point presentations on Bharat heritage and Vedic Maths, group singing, solo singing, quiz, story- telling, skits etc. Now, a word of caution; Ramaswamy and Meenakshi are not the 60 plus senior citizens normally found in occasions pertaining to Samskritam like the one thousand school children from top 60 schools of the city, they both were in their teens. About 40 learned persons from various walks of life responded to the call of ‘Samskrita Bharati’ Chennai, and officiated as Judges for these events. Yes, it was the two-day Balotsavam aimed at catching the imagination of young ones towards Samskritam jointly organized by ‘Samskrita Bharati’ and the Department of Sanskrit of DG Vaishnav College. Former Health Minister of State and now a functionary of BJP Dr. H V Hande was the chief guest at the valedictory. State organizing secretary of Samskrita Bharati M Sriram spoke on the occasion.