Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Aloor Shanavas’ recent public rendition of a Murugan devotional song has triggered debate online, with critics circulating his earlier statements from 2021 in which he urged the removal of Hindu customs from Pongal celebrations.
At a recent event, Shanavas described his performance of a Murugan song as an expression of Tamil Nadu’s secular character. He told the audience that he sang the piece spontaneously, without preparation, and said the song lived “in the layers of his memory.” Shanavas said, “If I had planned in advance, I wouldn’t have been able to sing; I didn’t know that I would be singing today. I didn’t know I would be singing a Murugan song today. I don’t even have my phone with me—my assistant has the phone. I didn’t get a chance to immediately look up, read, or memorize anything. I am singing from my memory. I am singing this song from the layers of my memory. So that’s why I fumbled here and there in between. Maybe I didn’t sing the song perfectly, but I am singing from my memory—how Murugan entered my memory, how D.M.S. sang so wonderfully, whether it is the imagined ‘Karpanai Endralum Karchilai Vai Endralum Kandhane Unai Maraven’ song, how that song entered my memory.”
He further said, “I am someone who follows Saivism, someone associated with Hinduism, yet I was born in the Islamic community and belong to it. How did this song come to me? It’s because when I was young, early in the mornings, I woke up hearing the songs played in the temples around my village, around my house, and I grew up listening to them. I woke up and grew up listening to the songs played in the nearby church. I woke up and grew up listening to the Isai Rasi (music-loving) songs. All of this is inside me. This is Tamil Nadu.”
#Watch | “கற்பனை என்றாலும் கற்சிலை என்றாலும் கந்தனே உன்னை மறவேன்..
என் நினைவுக்குள் எப்படி முருகன் வந்தார்? நான் இந்து மதத்தைச் சேர்ந்தவனா? இதுதான் தமிழ்நாடு..”
முருகன் பாடல் பாடி உரையாற்றிய ஆளூர் ஷாநவாஸ் எம்.எல்.ஏ.#SunNews | #TamilNadu | @aloor_ShaNavas pic.twitter.com/ziBjq6oBen
— Sun News (@sunnewstamil) November 12, 2025
However, his earlier comments on the celebration of Pongal have resurfaced. In a video from 2021, Shanavas expressed discomfort with Hindu elements in the harvest festival, arguing that certain customs “hurt the religious feelings of Christians and Muslims.” He had said that Pongal should be observed as a Tamil cultural festival, not as a religious ceremony involving worship of Surya Bhagwan or cattle, and urged that Hindu-specific practices be removed to maintain what he described as “Tamil unity.”
Shanavas said, “Hindus who are in majority, celebrate this event out of their religious beliefs. That is, offering food (padayal) to the sun, worshiping, venerating the sun, venerating cows—these are all considered rituals (ceremonies) and forms of worship within that tradition. That is, offering food to the sun, worshiping, venerating the sun, venerating cows—all these are considered as rituals and forms of worship within their tradition. Other, who are atheists, Muslims and Christians who say that they should not worship anyone other than the one true God, they are facing a problem. So, if you stand with the principle that it is a day to celebrate nature, a day to respect farmers, then there is no problem. This becomes a problem when the rituals are upholding a specific religious identity. So, for unity among Tamils, no ritual or worship must come in its way. If it does, the goal will be ruined, the unity will disintegrate, singularity will diminish. So, it must be identified as Tamizhar Thirunaal, there must be no place for prayer or rituals.”
DMK’s alliance partner says that “Hindu prayers & rituals during Pongal are hurting the unity and religious sentiments of Muslims & Christians, So stop praying to the sun, cow etc and keep it free from all rituals and prayers” #இந்துவே_விழித்திடு pic.twitter.com/Bfy0KGbHgL
— Vishwatma 🇮🇳 ( மோடியின் குடும்பம் ) (@HLKodo) January 12, 2021
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