Kanimozhi hits out at 'communal' forces

Rajya Sabha member MK Kanimozhi Sunday said communal forces are the biggest enemy of women's rights. The daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was speaking on the second day of the two-day DMK women's conference in Cuddalore.

She said if communal politics was allowed to emerge victorious, the first victim would be women's rights. "Communalism will extinguish women's rights."

Saying that the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal project was a victim of communal politics, Kanimozhi said, "The Sethu project is being opposed in the name of religion, on communal lines".

"The Sethu canal can be renamed and called the Sethuram canal project," she said.

Responding to Karunanidhi's critics, who have opposed his suggestion to call the Sethu canal as Ram-Sethu Canal, Kanimozhi said, "Karunanidhi is only concerned about the development of Tamil Nadu."

"If Dravidian leaders had to smear ash on their foreheads to get the Sethu canal project operational, they would gladly do so even if this was against Dravidian ideology," she said.

In her speech, Kanimozhi also noted that Hindutva forces "are re-grouping in the state" and reiterated that the chief minister "was fighting a battle against such evil forces" inspired by Ambedkar, Narayana Guru and others.

"We all witnessed the ugly face of Hindutva in Gujarat," Kanimozhi said, recalling how AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha had hosted Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi "who was behind all the chaos".

"Tamil Nadu will become another Gujarat," Kanimozhi warned, if Jayalalitha was re-elected to rule the state.

"She gave a red carpet welcome to Modi during his visit to Chennai...and the days of Tamil Nadu being turned into a Gujarat are not distant if Jayalalitha is allowed to come back to power," Kanimozhi said.