Bash Brahminism Back?

Muthuvel Karunanidhi, 81, often succumbs to bouts of nostalgia. He was a product of the Periyar-led non-Brahmin movement of the 1940s that bitterly opposed the "brahminical Congress". Last week, at a meeting of Journalists for Freedom of Expression, the DMK patriarch said the involvement of "some bigwigs" in the Khushboo-Suhasini issue "would lead to a situation that might warrant another Brahmin-non-Brahmin movement". He also accused "the communal forces" of trying to exploit his comments. Karunanidhi has earlier as well resorted to playing the non-Brahmin card, and equally quickly reneged on the issue. More recently, having initially congratulated the Jayalalitha government for the arrest of Shankaracharya, he spoke of the need to save the Kanchi math as an institution.