New Delhi: The war of words over the Ram Setu degenerated into a bitter slander match on Thursday with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi calling Lord Ram a ‘drunkard’ and a ‘big lie’.
Karunanidhi reacted with these bitter words after senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani on Thursday asked him to withdraw his statement about Ram, saying “people at the helm of affairs do not force contempt on others as far as religious affairs are concerned.”
“I want the Tamil Nadu CM to withdraw his statement about Ram. I respect Karunanidhi for being an atheist. But people at the helm of affairs do not force contempt on others as far as religious affairs are concerned,” Advani, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, said.
He pointed out that even the PM was upset about the Ram Setu controversy.
Karunanidhi shot back in no time, saying he remains firm on his stand. “I will not withdraw my statement."
"Ram is as big a lie as big as the truth of the existence of the Ganges and the Himalayas," he said. The TN Chief Minister even went on to call Lord Ram a 'drunkard'.
"Even Valmiki has said that Ram was a drunkard. I urge Advani to get into a debate with me after reading Valmiki's Ramayana," Karunanidhi said.
In the wake of the Ram Setu controversy, Karunanidhi had described Lord Ram as a ‘mythical hero’ and vowed to not go back on the Sethusamudram project.
“Is there any proof of Ram having built the bridge, or that he had the engineering expertise… There was no person in the name of Ram. The story of Ram is authored by Valmiki in Ramayana. There are so many things that Valmiki has said about Ram," Karunanidhi said.
On Tuesday evening, Karunanidhi daughter Selvi's house in Bangalore was attacked by unidentified miscreants in a development that was seen as a fallout of his comments. Karunanidhi slammed the attackers, saying "they showed the culture of Ram Bhaktas (worshippers). I treat these things like a speck of dust. I welcome such opposition.”
''The Ram Sevaks have proved their culture. I reiterate what I had said. There is no historical proof that Rama existed or of the bridge been built,'' he said.
Advani, who was at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, described DMK as the second 'destabilising force' in the UPA Government after the Left, and alleged that the party was making its own interpretations and issuing statements on the 'Ram Setu.'
“After the Left, the DMK had become the second destabilizing force in the government,” he said and demanded Karunanidhi to withdraw his remarks on Lord Ram and the Ramayana.
He also urged the Centre to fix ministerial responsibility on those who filed the affidavit on Ram Sethu and appropriately penalise them.
Predicting mid-term elections in early 2008, Advani told a press conference that he foresaw a ‘radical political change’ in the country after the next General Elections.
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