Save Vivekananda House, Chennai from DMK Govt. hostile takeover
Those famililar with the city of Chennai will know that Vivekananadar Illam (or V.House, in short) on the banks of Marina beach is one of the not-to-miss landmarks of the city.
It was in this heritage building (called Castle Kernan at that time and later Ice House) that Swami Vivekananda stayed during his historic visit to Chennai in Feb, 1897, after his victorious tours of the US and Europe. Swamiji delivered some of his finest and most inspiring speeches from this very building.
As a tribute to this great son of India, govt. leased this building in Feb 1997 (centenary of Swamiji's Chennai visit) to Ramakrishna Math, upon Math's request. RK Math put a beautiful permanant exhibition about Hindu culture and Swami Vivekananda's life, at the cost of one crore. Most visitors to the beach also come to V.House, enjoy and learn from the exhibition and also pay their respects to Swamiji's life-size statue installed there.
The lease was to expire in the next 2 yrs, The Math was planning to extend it for another 30 years. But now the DMK govt. has issued a sudden *3-day* notice to the Math to vacate the builiding immediately by Apr-24! The govt officials have also started pressurizing the Math.
Reason? Govt. wants to set up a "classical Tamil center" at this place, which govt. claims will promote academic study and research of classical Tamil works. The govt. has hinted it may even demolish the century-old building for this purpose.
Well, nobody would oppose such a center. But why is the govt *so* bent upon this particular heritage building for this purpose, that has Swamiji's footprints? The govt. can always set up a new building in any place in Chennai for this purpose !
It is very clear that the anti-Hindu DMK govt. wants to erase the famed memory of Swami Vivekananda from the Chennai's landscape. But by cunningly using the name of "Tamil", DMK thinks it can silence any opponents of such a move. But its not working, as many opposition parties, including ADMK and Sarathkumar's party have condemned the govt's move.
Please add your voice also to the campaign to save Vivekananda House in its current form. Sign the online petition -
http://www.petitiononline.com/vi220408/petition.html
Related news :
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE920080421151428&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0
http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2008/04/22/tn-govt-asks-rk-mutt-to-vacate-vivekanandar-illam.html (Tamil)
http://thatstamil.oneindia.in/news/2008/04/23/tn-leaders-raise-voice-for-vivekanandar-illam.html (Tamil)
