Defeat bid to turn Tiruparankundram into communal cauldron: CPM

CHENNAI: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) on Tuesday urged the State government not to implement the recent Madras High Court order directing that the Karthigai Deepam be lit at the Tiruparankundram hilltop and called for legal steps to have the directive set aside.

A resolution to this effect was adopted at the two-day state committee meeting that began in Pudukottai, chaired by politburo member U Vasuki and attended by general secretary MA Baby and state secretary P Shanmugam.

The resolution said groups promoting communal politics by converting people’s faith into hostility had been consistently attempting to create new flash points, citing Ayodhya, Mathura, Kashi and Sambhal as case studies.

It said similar attempts were being made in Tiruparankundram by insisting that the lamp be lit near the Sikandar Dargah on the hill, where it had never been lit before.

According to the party, there had never been any objection to lighting the Karthigai Deepam in Tiruparankundram. A division bench of the Madras High Court had earlier held that the existing practice should continue.

In contrast, Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai Bench ruled on December 1 that the lamp should also be lit at the hilltop from this year. The CPM said the wording “from this year” confirmed that no lamp had been lit at that spot earlier.

The resolution said the controversy was not merely about lighting a lamp but part of a broader political strategy intended to create discord by using places of worship as pressure points.

It said similar tactics had contributed to conflicts over places of worship in the past, including the Babri Masjid dispute, and that such issues were often triggered by decisions of courts or sections of the administration.

The party argued that the latest order did not reflect religious sentiment but political motivations traceable to patterns seen in northern India.

The CPM said Tamil Nadu had long stood as an example of communal harmony and warned that any disruption to this balance would enable groups seeking political gains by fostering division.

It said these groups had not contributed to progress in women’s rights, social justice, land reforms, state rights or welfare measures and had often opposed such initiatives.

The state committee said the order appeared to support those attempting to create discord and was neither well-intentioned nor legally sound.

It called on the government to pursue all lawful measures to have it set aside and urged the people to uphold Tamil Nadu’s tradition of harmony and reject attempts to incite conflict.