Udhayanidhi sparks row with Vinayaga pic

Self-proclaimed atheist DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin on Monday pulled a leaf out of his father’s book by posting an image of a Vinayakar idol on his official Twitter around midnight and following it up with a denial half a day later.

Around half past 11pm Sunday, Udhayanidhi tweeted the image of an anonymous person holding the clay made idol of Vinayaga without comments. The photograph, understandably, had evoked a mixed reaction. While the right wingers who were complaining about atheist DMK president M K Stalin not greeting people for Chathurthi went gung-ho over his son endorsing the festival, a good number of DMK and Periyarists ‘bashed’ the youth wing head for compromising the ideology.

It was not uncommon to find comments accusing Stalin junior of destroying a half a century-old ideology of the party with just a photograph. Unsurprisingly, Udhayanidhi came up with a clarification on Monday evening, justifying his ideological commitment as well as the tweet. “Neither my wife nor I believe in god. But everyone is aware that my mother is a believer. Our house also has a pooja room comprising photos of our ancestors and photographs of a few gods my mother believes in. We are in the habit of making important decisions in front of ancestors’ photographs,” Udhayanidhi clarified.

“My mother had bought an idol for this chathurthi. My curious daughter who saw the idol wanted to take a photograph with the idol before its immersion. I captured the photograph and posted it on my twitter account for her satisfaction. Nothing more,” he said, adding that he could understand the conspiracy of opportunists who intend to turn every development against the DMK. “People who did not pay heed to my tweets about corruption and anti-people activities are now strongly debating my tweet,” Udhayanidhi said.

A few years ago, Stalin had posted a greeting message for the same festival on his official Facebook page and subsequently retracted by blaming his admin. Apart from exposing the ideological inconsistency at the DMK helm, the faux pas committed by the DMK youth wing leader has also demonstrated the change in approach of the party high command.