Vivekananda Illam NOT to be demolished now

This afternoon's assertion from the CM on the floor of the assembly sets to rest the four day old drama on the fate of Vivekananda Illam, I should confess driving past the Illam this morning I was looking out for some kind of government seal and battalion of police men outside the gate. None were there and the place looked as peaceful as before.

'Tamilnadu Chief Minister has dismissed reports about plans to demolish Vivekananda House near Marina beach in Chennai. He said the government had no plans to build a Tamil cultural centre in its place as reported in the news media.

Replying to a special call attention motion in the Assembly, he said some were trying to create a conflict between the government and samiyars by spreading malicious news that the memorial of Swami Vivekananda would be razed down. ‘We don’t have any problem with Swami Vivekananda. His preachings were almost similar to those of our leaders Periyar and Anna,’ said the Chief Minister....' (read full news story)

However, Sathya opines that this is only a temporary respite and as long as legally the Math gets the lease extended for the next thirty years, there will always be problems in 2010. He points out that DMK will still be in power in 2010 when this lease will come up for a review. He also has mentioned that this is part of a larger re-assessment of all prime real estate property by the government that seems to be going on in a large scale.

Another friend this morning queried 'why should every place that Vivekananda visited be saved for posterity?'. In the days to come there would be such opinions more openly floated and public response sought. My own thoughts are that once such a place for a certain purpose has been created it is better not to destroy it and spend whatever time in strengthening it. There is no other museum of the non-government kind in Chennai to the best of my knowledge. Certainly not on the Indian culture and tradition. Yes, like someone had written a letter on the Illam sometime back, it can be said that the Illam has Swami Vivekananda as its focus, but, that will be case with any such centre being managed by a certain institution, it would present its own leaders most.

We do not have any place where people can meet and learn about Indian thinkers in Chennai. I don't know whether there is even such a place for Dravidian leaders such a Periyar and Anna. I know there is a library in the Periyar thidal, but, I don't know whether there is an exhibition and a place where some activity takes place regularly related to such thinkers. The shrinking of public platforms of any kind for serious activity, either social or cultural is our city's bane. Those that have only taken the recreational route or have appealed to commercial investment for publicity returns alone have survived.