தினசெய்தி – 19 2 2023
பக்கம் எண் : 4
செங்கோல் ஏந்திய செம்மொழிச் சிகரம் – 92
திருவாசகமணியைப் போல் இனி மறுவாசக மணியைப் பார்ப்பதேது ?
– முனைவர் ஔவை நடராசன்
மேனாள் துணைவேந்தர்,
தமிழ்ப் பல்கலைக்கழகம்.
நான் டாக்டர் பட்டம் பெற்றதையொட்டி, ஒய். எம். சி. ஏ. வில் நடைபெற்ற பாராட்டுக் கூட்டத்தில் திருவாசகமணி கே.எம். பாலசுப்பிரமணியம் அவர்கள் தலைமை தாங்கிப் பேசியதோடு என்னுடைய ஆராய்ச்சிக் கட்டுரையைப் பற்றி ஆங்கிலத்தில் உரையாற்றினார்.
அப்போது பத்துப் பதினைந்து ஆங்கில அறிஞர்களைப் பற்றிய குறிப்புகள், அவர்கள் வாழ்க்கை பற்றிய நிகழ்வுகளைக் காட்டிப் பேசினார்.
அவ்வகையில் முத்தமிழறிஞரைப் பற்றி திருவாசகமணி கே.எம். பாலசுப்பிரமணியம் ஆங்கிலத்தில் எழுதிய நடைச்சித்திரத்தின் தொடர்ச்சி வருமாறு:
The greatest and boldest stroke of far-sighted statesmanship and political stratagem exhibited by this political prodigy and heroic vote-catcher was to have thrown in his lot with that of the Prime Minister of India and dissolved the Tamilnadu Assembly along with the Union Parliament in 1971, one year in advance, and sought the unequivocal verdict of the electorate.
It was, however, the Himalayan, indefatigable and Herculean work of this Titanic and tireless organiser which was responsible for the unexpected and unprecedented landslide victory at the polls of the D.M.K. Party which in its turn catapulted that party into the Treasury Benches.
It was, by all standards a highly risky, political gamble but Karunanidhi knows no fear and his hand is on the pulse of his people.
Hence this wild adventurism was rewarded by a wise electorate.
Dr. Karunanidhi’s magnum opus seems to me to be his imaginative and humanitarian opening of a stupendous fund for solving the ancient problem of the beggars.
This bold and beneficent scheme bespeaks volumes of our Chief Minister’s benign soul.
Its early and complete success will have set a sterling example to the other States in India and all countries of the world.
His bold and extra-ordinary announcement of his plan to collect ten crores of rupees for this State’s contribution to the war-fund was quite characteristic of this colossus in collection, though it may sound as too tall an order for some.
The deepening of the Veeranam lake and the consequent warding off of a serious famine in Tamil Nadu with the special financial assistance and bounty given by the Prime Minister of India is a chapter of gigantic achievement worthy of a glorious Karikaalan.
The Tuticorin Harbour Scheme,
the Salem Steel Plant and the many Fertiliser Factories and the Kaveri Water Scheme for Madras and a number of other useful schemes are so many feathers in the cap of our fertile-minded Kalaignar.
Above all, the most resplendent Kohinoor brilliantly shining on the bright and regal crown adorning the forehead of our Chief Minister was the historic battle waged and won against the high-handed imposition of Hindi on the people of Tamilnadu.
With the whole people of Tamil Nadu following him like one man,
Mr. Karunanidhi fought that fierce battle like a Jehad and forced that impudent infidel to beat a hasty retreat.
The ways of disposing of the petitions, pleadings and appeals of the public adopted by the Chief Minister are quite peremptory, novel and pragmatic.
He has at once boldly made innovations and broken all records in the timeworn, slow-moving, anti-diluvian machinery of the Administration. He lends a personal touch and a human colour to the cold and lifeless paper files.
“I am rushing at the speed of Guindy race-horses and I expect the officials of my Administration also to keep pace with me,” Mr. Karunanidhi once declared at a function.
The suspension of Prohibition in Tamilnadu in the face of the loud-mouthed opposition of all the congressmen, is yet another act of desperate heroism and daring quite characteristic of Karunanidhi whose conviction of its correctness is based on the concrete evidence as well as his conscience.
He has of the courage of his conviction.
In these days of depravity and degeneracy in general and poverty of political integrity and public morality in particular, change of party is a daily “Samskara” and floor crossing an annual “Shraddha” in the North Indian States.
This political pestilence and moral plague are few and far between, if not altogether absent in Tamilnadu.
And Dr.Karunanidhi’s occasional and periodic elimination of some of his colleagues from his cabinet, operated with quiet dignity and no air of self-righteousness is an act of high political integrity and higher moral standard which has at once enhanced the reputation of the Chief Minister and enriched the purity of political life of Tamilnadu.
Yet another piece of daring statesmanship.
The throne-like Chair of the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu has never been occupied and adorned till now by a political genius and powerful giant of the mould and calibre of Kalaignar Karunanidhi, notwithstanding the cases of his physical and intellectual giant-predecessors of a Rajaji or a Kamarajji.
Being party men, in spite of their courage and conviction, they simply could not overstep their bounds or burst out of their shell.
But Karunanidhi, being the leader of another party, attempts to outgrow the Chair of his constitutional limitations and if the ceiling of the Central Government and the side-walls of financial curbs should obstruct his overgrowth, he wants to pull and pulverise and bring the whole edifice to the ground even as Samson Agonistes had done before.
And it is this Herculean attempt of his party, hailed as a genuine demand for State Autonomy by the D.M.K, which is handled as a political stick to beat them with by his desperate congress foes.
Having never tasted an electoral reverse at any time in his life, Karunanidhi’s political life has been a rare chapter of roses, roses all the way in a general sense.
But his whole life cannot be said to have been a golden garden of ever-green and endless roses.
Born in a poor family and in a backward community and brought up in want and worries,Dr. Karunanidhi has now scaled and settled upon the crowning peak of Everest Success.
He is at the acme of glory.
Yet, his has been a life full of dangers and lively escapes and survival.
I firmly believe that an all-wise and affectionate Providence alone must have invariably interceded and intentionally protected and saved him for the sake of Tamil Nadu and Tamil.
Wild adventures and wilder dangers to his life lie strewn all through his political pilgrimage The Pondicherry torture, the Kottur attempted murder, the near fatal car accident and a dozen other dangerous mishaps to him would have done honour to the thrilling biographies of dozen other heroes of the Crusades and the horsemen of the medieval Europe.
His bold and courageous battle for the retention of the name of Kalla Kurichi in which Mr. Karunanidhi had placed his head on the railway track in Front of an on-coming train, stands out as a case of wild and wanton adventure but based on a worthy political principle.
The pinnacle of glory or his political power has never inebriated the Kalaignar to the point of making him blind to the reality around him.
He has got a rare capacity to reconcile himself to the inevitable with sportsmanship.
The fiasco of his demand for a separate flag, the unsuccessful battle for an unobstructed Cauvery and the impolite rejection of permission by the Centre to install the statue of Raja Rajan etc. are no doubt prestigious blows to his power and majesty.
But he has accepted them for, the nonce. He gladly withdrew his orders making Tamil the compulsory medium of college education, the moment he realised that it was premature.
It is another stroke of restrained statesmanship.
– தொடர்புக்கு: “thamizhavvai@gmail.com
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