The event to compile and publish a book of Vaiko’s speeches delivered in Parliament in the past is taking place this evening in Delhi. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will release the book, and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav will receive it.
Meanwhile, regarding this book release event, Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer S. Dharman had shared some views on social media. He had said that M.K. Stalin is the one qualified to release Vaiko’s book.
We spoke with S. Dharman, who had posted about this twice.
“I was the DMK branch secretary in South Thittankulam near Kovilpatti in Thoothukudi district. At one point, I left politics altogether and turned to writing. But that day, I expressed my opinion as someone who had once done politics with Gopalasamy. It is a good thing to turn all that has been spoken in Delhi over so many years into a book. But isn’t it important who kept sending you to Delhi all these years?”
If you’re born as a human being, you should have gratitude and loyalty. Even I went on to receive the Sahitya Akademi Award. But even today, no matter which gathering I go to, I never finish my speech without mentioning Ki. Ra. The reason is that he showed me the path in this field.
Over the course of the year, there may have been one period when he went with the support of the AIADMK. But every other time, he went to Parliament with the support of the DMK, and when publishing the things he spoke there as a book, if he didn’t even tell a DMK man, what does that mean?
By rights, the book should have been released by DMK leader Stalin himself. Even if they had gone over to the opposition after the election, if they had gone to Stalin and asked him to release the book, he would surely have agreed and come.
Isn’t it contradictory to invite and hold a ceremony with the very people you have been criticizing all these years in the Rajya Sabha? He must have spoken so much against the Congress for the sake of Eelam Tamils. Does it really look good to have the book released by the same Congress leader? I just felt like saying this, so I’m saying it,” he says.
We asked Congress party’s Gopanna about this book release ceremony.
“There was a book called ‘Kamarajar Yugam.’ In it, the statement attributed to Kamarajar, ‘DMK and AIADMK are birds of a feather from the same pond,’ was included. Kalaignar had written the foreword for that book. I asked him about this myself. He said, ‘There’s nothing wrong in that; he expressed his opinion. I gave the foreword out of the respect I had for Kamarajar.’”
There are countless examples like this in politics. Has the DMK not spoken about Indira Gandhi? Aren’t the Congress and the DMK in an alliance? This is the same thing.
Vaiko strongly opposes the common enemy, the BJP. On that basis alone, we are now in the same camp. We do not agree with his support for Prabhakaran today. That is different; this is different. Don’t mix the two up,’ he says.