Karunanidhi criticises Hindu practice of sporting 'tilaks'

5/11/08, Expressbuzz
CHENNAI: Flaying the Hindu practice of smearing ash or saffron or sporting a 'tilak' on the forehead for yet another time, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Wednesday questioned the need for "such things in a country which preached equality of all religions."

Karunanidhi also questioned the rationale behind Brahmins wearing sacred thread.
"What is the need for these things in a country that has accepted all religions and preached equality of the same," he asked in a poem penned by him in the wake of caste-related violence in Madurai yesterday in which one person was killed in police firing.

He had on earlier occasions also ridiculed the practice of smearing ash or saffron on the forehead.

The DMK chief had made similar remarks on certain other Hindu customs earlier and described Hindus as "robbers". But later he clarified that he meant Hindus were robbers "who stole hearts".

In the height of the Sethusamudram controversy, he had described Lord Ram as a "drunkard" and wondered whether he was a qualified engineer to have built the Ramasethu. In the poem, Karunanidhi described truth as God, adding that all people were equal before God and described as "ignorance" those who were not aware of it.
"Caste differences are the offshoot of the branches called differences based on religion... lets chop off not only the branches but also uproot the tree to witness the emergence of a beautiful concept called equality," he said. He also described as useless the face-off between believers and non-believers on the concept of God and said there was no point fighting over which faith was supreme.

Included comments:
1. Karunanidhi claims to be an atheist and knows that Jesus Christ or Mohammad, never lived on earth, and are just creations of imaginations. Yet Karunanidhi will not ask about the fake miracles of Christ or about the non existence of Christ on earth. Karunanidhi has no courage to ask Muslims to show the proof that Mohammad lived on earth by pointing a single account of a witness who was his contemporary. Can he ask about Mohammad how an illiterate like him could get such brain waves to create Quran from his memories? Karunanidhi, used to go to Church and Mosques but never visit a temple. He asks his followers to encroach the temple lands. Tamils see that Karunanidhi’s children from his six wives, like Stalin and other family members go to temples and see one of his wife falls at the feet of the Sai Baba.Like Rahul Gandhi who is involved in rape Karunanidhi is promoting Stalin who abducted and raped a muslim girl as the next CM. Most of the DMK is linked to LTTE and Veerappan. By N krishna

2. Hello Karunanidhi, You are preaching the people all over tamilnadu but conveniently forget your house hold. I want to know why Dayalu Ammal have a thilak in her forehead and why Durga Stalin have one.Please erase it.It is a well known fact that you only preach and never follow it. You are against Sanskrit but you never change your name. You named all your family members with nidhis. (dayanidhi, kalanidhi, inbanidhi, udayanidhi) etc. Why can't you substitute it with Selvam(Tamil meaning of Nidhi). You have not having the guts to question Christians and Muslims. But are you ready to publicly announce that you don't need the votes of Hindus. By Hari