Letters to the editor

TN as Anna wanted

• The history of Tamil Nadu in the piece, ‘Sea change in DMK’ (IE, October 3), was flawed. EVR was the treasurer of the TN Congress when Rajaji was the TNCC president. There were charges of some money being not accounted for, and Rajaji asked EVR for accounts. EVR got angry, left the party and joined the Justice Party, which was already carrying on an anti-brahmin movement. The stalwarts of that party like A. Ramaswamy Mudaliar and P.T. Rajan were men of absolute integrity, like any Congressman of those days. They were also staunchly religious. EVR could not find a place he thought he deserved in the party and therefore left the Justice Party too and started the atheist Dravida Kazhagam. EVR did have some success in fighting against the caste system but it was the late C.N. Annadurai who gave real life to that movement through his intellectually stimulating speeches and writings. Anna was a statesman, not a politician, and made it clear that his fight was against brahminism, and not brahmins. He was a large-hearted man, a man of humour and was thoroughly against violence. That is how his movement gathered such a large following, even among the poor. He once said, “I see God in the smiles on the face of the poor.” Had CNA lived a little longer, the history of Tamil Nadu would have been different.

— G. Dwarakanath

Bangalore

October 2 neglect

• The birthdays of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri and Kamaraj’s remembrance day fall on one and the same day: October 2. But every year, Lal Bahadur Shastri, the little man with an enormous heart, is conspicuously overlooked, although some ritualistic garlanding of his statue may take place in Parliament. No leader takes care to celebrate his birthday as they do the birthdays of Mahatma Gandhi and Kamaraj. Shastri and Narasimha Rao are surely the best among Congress prime ministers, who raised India to great heights, but they continue to be neglected, presumably because they do not belong to the dynasty.

— V. Kameswaran

Chennai