Chennai, September 20
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi today challenged BJP leader L.K. Advani to discuss Ramayana on the same platform and went ahead to say that Valmiki had described Ram as a “drunkard”.
Rejecting Advani’s demand that he withdraw his remarks on Ram, Karunanidhi said, “Ram was ‘as much a lie, as the Ganga and the Himalayas are true. I have not said anything more than Valmiki, who authored Ramayana. Valmiki had even stated that Ram was a drunkard. Have I said so?”
Addressing the media this afternoon, he posed a challenge to Advani and asked, “Is Advani ready to discuss Ramayana with me on the same platform after going through Valmiki Ramayana fully?”
Replying to a question, he said that the intention of the Sethusamudram project was not to destroy the “Ram Setu” if at all it existed and added, “I only want the project to be implemented at the earliest as it would reduce the shipping expenses and develop trade. The project has been put on hold for the past 100 years.”
Karunanidhi said that the project would help people of Tamil Nadu and also lead to prosperity of entire south India.
Commening on Advani’s remarks that only the miracles performed by Jesus Christ or Moses could be questioned and not their existence while demanding that Karunanidhi withdraw his remarks questioning the existence of Ram, the Chief Minister said, “I have only said what Valmiki had said.”
He explained, “I myself have written many novels. Do the characters of my novel exist? Even Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who was a great scholar, had said that Ramayana was an imaginary tale and this was the opinion of Rajaji, former Governor-General of India,
too.”
