Railways change tracks, toe CM line on seer row

The Southern Railway today announced that it had invited president of Kancheepuram Jama Masjid Janab K S Aslam Basha and Pastor of Church of South India, Kancheepuram, Reverend Martin J. Phillip, to the function tomorrow in Kancheepuram to mark the laying of the foundation stone for theArakkonam-Kancheepuram-Chengalpattu 63-km gauge conversion project. The Tamil Nadu Government has withdrawn its protest and has confirmed that minister Ponmudi will join Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar at the function.

Earlier, in the state Assembly the chief minister said there was no question of reconsidering the decision to boycott the function unless religious leaders of Christian and Muslim communities were invited along with the Sankaracharyas.

Responding to an appeal by Tamil Maanila Congress leader S Balakrishnan, Karunanidhi said his decision had nothing to do with the Sankaracharyas. “I have no hatred or enmity against them.”

But in view of the Coimbatore serial blasts in February, “the scars of which are yet to be erased,” there was need for gestures of communal amity like inviting all the religious heads. His party was keen on fostering communal harmony in the state, he said, adding it was vital to ensure harmony and peace among various communities.

He, however, told the Assemblythat he had information that the railway administration was indeed considering his suggestion in this regard. “If this is done, Ponmudi will then participate in the function,” he asserted.

Balakrishnan withdrew the objections voiced yesterday over the invitation to the Kanchi Sankaracharyas. He said he had gone through the explanation given by railway officials that it was customary to invite respectable religious leaders of the region to railway functions.

Also, there were several other instances in the past when the Sankaracharyas participated in a railway function in Kancheepuram in 1995, a Bishop took part in a function at Alleppey in Kerala in 1997 and Bangaru Adigalar was invited to a function at Melmaruvathur in Tamil Nadu recently, he said.

He now felt that there was nothing wrong in respectable people being invited to railway functions and appealed to the chief minister to reconsider the decision to boycott the function, Balakrishnan said. He pointed out that the railways had undertakenseveral beneficial projects for the state and the gauge conversion programme was one such project.

Declining to comment on Balakrishnan’s remarks, the chief minister, however, maintained that he would stick to his decision.

Subsequently, Southern Railway made changes, apparently under instructions from the Railway Ministry, clearing the decks for the participation of Ponmudi.