On February 8, he launched the 'Ambedkar Makkal Sabhai' (Ambedkar People's Forum), an outfit of some 20-oddfringe Dalit community leaders who look up to Jayendra Saraswati as their liberator. One such Dalit bhaktof Shankaracharya is P. Viswanathan Kakkan, brother of the late Congress leader P.M. Kakkan, Tamil Nadu's onlyDalit to serve as home minister during Kamaraj's chief ministership. Viswanathan was in fact instrumental ingetting Jayendra Saraswati to offer worship at the Veerakali Amman temple in Thumbaipatti near Melur inMadurai district in November 2002. The temple in Kakkan's birthplace is served by a Dalit priest. SaysViswanathan, lawyer at the Madras high court: