PTI
 
Chennai, Nov 5: Flaying the Hindu practice of smearing ash or saffron or sporting a 'tilak' on the forehead for yet another time, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Wednesday questioned the need for "such things in a country which preached equality of all religions."

Karunanidhi also questioned the rationale behind Brahmins wearing sacred thread.

"What is the need for these things in a country that has accepted all religions and preached equality of the same," he asked in a poem penned by him in the wake of caste-related violence in Madurai yesterday in which one person was killed in police firing.

He had on earlier occasions also ridiculed the practice of smearing ash or saffron on the forehead.

The DMK chief had made similar remarks on certain other Hindu customs earlier and described Hindus as "robbers". But later he clarified that he meant Hindus were robbers "who stole hearts".

In the height of the Sethusamudram controversy, he had described Lord Ram as a "drunkard" and wondered whether he was a qualified engineer to have built the Ramasethu.

In the poem, Karunanidhi described truth as God, adding that all people were equal before God and described as "ignorance" those who were not aware of it.

"Caste differences are the offshoot of the branches called differences based on religion... lets chop off not only the branches but also uproot the tree to witness the emergence of a beautiful concept called equality," he said.

He also described as useless the face-off between believers and non-believers on the concept of God and said there was no point fighting over which faith was supreme.