Tamil Nadu Governor stirs hornet’s nest again

Chennai: Governor R N Ravi has stirred the hornet’s nest once again by sending out invitations for a ‘Thiruvalluvar Thirunaal Vizha’ to be held at the Raj Bhavan in Chennai on Friday with a photograph of the revered Tamil poet savant dressed in saffron attire. While it is not clear as to why the Raj Bhavan is organizing a festival for Thiruvalluvar in May when the real ‘Thiruvalluvar Day’ comes as part of the Pongal Festival in January every year, the depiction of the poet in saffron robes and with religious marks on the forehead and upper arms has created a controversy. At that time, Ravi had, in a message on X, described Thiruvalluvar as the ‘brightest saint of Bharatiya Sanatan tradition.’ The ancient Tamil poet who gave the seminal work ‘Thirurukal’ that has been translated into 42 Indian languages with 57 renderings in English alone, is generally depicted wearing white robes and his work is considered by scholars as quintessentially secular. So when the Governor called Thiruvalluvar a ‘saint of the Bharatiya Sanatana tradition’ and also accused G U Pope, who translated the work into the English for the first time, of robbing it of its spirituality, most political leaders were up on arms, saying that Thiruvalluvar belonged to no religion.