Express News Service
CHENNAI: DMK’s rationalist beginnings have always been used against the party. It has, however, always comfortably fought such campaigns. This time, the party picked up the gauntlet way before the elections and announced a host of initiatives for temples, priests, and devotees in its manifesto. BJP leaders had taken credit for the pressure they exerted and went ahead with the campaign but DMK’s TR Baalu rebuffed it and reiterated the party’s secular credentials.
Even on the campaign trail, the Chief Minister M K Stalin had reiterated that most of the party’s cadre were Hindus. After coming to power, one such party member P K Sekar Babu was given the charge of the sensitive department, another attempt to silence such criticisms. An ardent devotee of Lord Ayyappa and a regular visitor to the temples, Sekar Babu is purportedly well aware of the administrative functions of temples. He actively participates in the department’s affairs and visits temples a