The new Amma

The new amma in Karunanidhi’s life

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M Karunanidhi, said to be a hardcore atheist and who had on several occasions reprimanded party men for flirting with religion now seems to have no problems with spiritual leaders.

A few weeks ago Karunanidhi shared the stage with godman Sathya Sai Baba and this time it was with spiritual guru Mata Amritanandamayi.

So unlike Tamil Nadu’s political amma, former chief minister Jayalalitha, this amma has struck the right chord with the Chief Minister.

“Mata Amritanandamayi was born in coastal Kerala and she is like a pearl that the sea gives us. A pearl who takes care of the needy around the world,”Karunanidhi says.

The octogenarian Chief Minister had a battery of state and Central ministers at the function in Nagapattinam for tsunami victims.

Karunanidhi now boasts of a different image, of a man who had once told his ministers that wearing a tika on their forehead was an insult to Tamil rationalist leader Periyar’s ideology.

2 Feb 2007, Chennai
Moneycontrol.com
http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/newsarticle/stocksnews.php?cid=1&autono=32594&source=ibnlive.com