H Raja, Manushyaputhiran spat may keep DMK away from BJP

BJP national secretary H Raja’s polemics have sufficiently angered spokespersons of the DMK, which has been averse to getting anywhere close to the BJP for 2019 Lok Sabha polls. 

H Raja’s rants targeting DMK member and writer Manushyaputhiran has prompted a sharp reply from DMK cadre and Dravida Iyakka Tamilar Peravai leader Suba Veerapandian, a Dravidian ideologue close to the DMK leadership. Raja had demanded the arrest of Manushyaputhiran for penning a poem repudiating the ridiculous proposition that the Kerala floods were the curse of the gods angered by the demand to allow (menstruating) women into the abode of Lord Ayappa in Sabarimala.

The writer had responded in kind by alleging that Raja was posing a threat to his life. Suba Veerapandian did not waste any time in rushing to the writer’s defence. He, like Raja, has also taken to twitter to demand the arrest of Raja for threatening to kill Manushyaputhiran. Though the DMK top brass have not gone public, the latest vitriol from Raja against Manushyaputhiran, one of the literary faces of the party, has annoyed the DMK leaders. 

State Congress leaders, who are silently celebrating the DMK and BJP crossing swords, though at a smaller level, are confident that their national rival would not ruin their political prospects in the state and that too when murmurs were heard that the BJP was plotting to keep the DMK away from Congress if it were not able to sew up an alliance with the Dravidian major itself. 

There is no dearth of rumours in the DMK and Congress circles about the BJP wanting to revive its ties with the DMK post-polls, a proposition too premature to consider. “Comments of such BJP leaders are hardly responded to. Even if they speak sugar coated words or mouth concern for us, the leadership will only take it with a pinch of salt because we (DMK) are in no mood to tag along with the BJP, which is the least popular party in the state now,” a senior DMK leader requesting anonymity remarked.