This was one anniversary that was best forgotten but alas, the worst is now on public parade. Memories of Veerappan should have been interred with him, but a group of overzealous ‘Tamil champions’ have sought to resurrect him by exhuming his life and times. And they have sung his glory without regard to his gory trail of blood and mayhem.
What a travesty that the most prolific killer and kidnapper of our times who hijacked and hacked scores of men and mammals for money should now be presented as one of the champions of our race! I find it unfair and repulsive now to even mention the names of some of the true champions in the same breath in context. Of course, the neo-sponsors of brigand V could be ignored if they were the usual run-of-the-mill rhetoricians who are littered all over TN. But these fringe groups carry guns, are well networked and are already wanted by the police.
There is nothing amiss in the brigand’s family turning up at the burial spot. Nor was the presence of some of the usual suspects like Nedumaran and Co, who have made no bones about their admiration for the killer, any surprise. But if newspaper reports are to be believed, quite a few Tamil extremists and naxal elements had also turned up at V’s grave on the appointed day, not just to pay homage but to recharge themselves and their ideology too, whatever it is. These men, who had gathered at the site at a very early hour, apparently took a pledge too though there is no clue on what it was about and against whom. But one can be certain that ahimsa was not on their agenda. And in a painful reminder of the Veerappan saga, the police got wind of it only after the birds had flown.
Veerappan’s avatar as a champion of Tamil causes (?) is not wholly posthumous, as it now seems. The bandit’s atrocities were sought to be camouflaged with ideological gloss during the Rajkumar kidnap episode itself. The actor’s capture was a coup of sorts by V compared to all his previous hijack-hostage dramas which were pure commercial deals, with impotent regimes and dubious emissaries broking on his behalf. This became a god-sent opportunity for the Tamil extremist groups who already had some criminal links with V. Rajkumar being a Kannada icon, they could now give the issue a chauvinist spin, make V a champion in the process and extract some mileage for themselves.
Nedumaran, a known godfather of all such elements, was forthwith drafted as emissary in place of the usual one, a journo who had virtually patented V. And promptly came pompous pronouncements from the thickets on Tamils’ pride and plight. V now wanted Cauvery water, a Thiruvalluvar statue bang in the middle of Bangalore, release of Tamil TADA detenues and many more. It was win-win for him. He could combine profit and principles. The Tamil militants swelled his diminishing ranks. Weapons and bombs came his way. And above all two governments, from CMs to CoP, were on their knees, awaiting his cassettes which topped the charts in the secretariats those days, keen to do his bidding. And thus a poacher was converted into a preacher. The ideal rogue was now an idealogue!
Can politicians’ double-talk, STF atrocities and the troubles faced by the tribals and villagers all be made alibis for converting a manic murderer into some sort of a martyr-messiah? That seems to be so. V died for a cause, we are being told! And his ‘followers’ have now vowed to carry forward his ideals. The ideals of killing, kidnapping, poaching et al? What kind of a cause is that that takes Veerappan as an inspiration? If that is the Tamil cause, then it needs to be dumped along with its champions. And their insinuation that V’s killing was unfair takes the cake. What other nemesis can befall a brute who lived of the bullet, by the bullet and for the bullet? Indeed, these self-styled paragons are doing a signal disservice to the language and its lovers by their misguided and mindless attempts to vindicate the vilest of villains.
Given such trends one dreads to imagine what if V were alive today. Indeed, we should be happy to be paying him homage now. Or else, we may be paying not just ransoms, but even taxes!
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