Rajni fans on mission to check emotions in border areas

Rajni fans on mission to check emotions in border areas
K. SHIVA KUMAR

DIMBAM, AUG 29: While Rajkumar fans are praying for the early release of their hero, Tamil superstar Rajnikanth's fans are on a mission to check people from fanning emotions at border areas.

Rajni Rasigar Mandram members are active in the villages bordering the forest areas around Chamarajnagar and Sathyamanaglam. They are trying to defuse tension and ensure harmony in the region.

Fans of the Tamil superstar have been closely watching the hostage crisis from the day Rajkumar and three others were kidnapped from Gajanur village. Now they have formed different groups and are mobilising their members in all the remote villages.

The mandrams, which have been keeping a low profile all along, have become active with Rajnikanth personally intervening to secure the safe release of Rajkumar. Rajnikanth sent a recorded message to Rajkumar in Veerappan's hideout through Government emissary R R Gopal and the star called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. This has boosted the morale of his fans.

Meanwhile, the Rajni Fans' Association leaders' call to their members to take a lead in maintaining law and order situation has helped Tamilians in the border village gain confidence.

Sathyamangalam Rajnikanth Fans' Association president S M Dayalan, Secretary R Sendhil and other office-bearers, who are on a ``peace mission'', are visiting the border villages near Bannari, Dimbam and Talavadi.

Dayalan said, ``We have visited a few villages comprising both Kannadigas and Tamilians. Though we are confident that there will be no threat to continuing peace in the region, we will not let things go out of hand''.

Sathyamangalam, which has 250 Rajni Fans' Club with more than 10,000 members spread in all the three hoblis and almost all villages, is monitored by their office-bearers in Taluk headquarters.

Members of the Mandram will follow the directions of the state and district committees. The intervention of Ranjikanth, however, has made us take precautionary measures and visit a few villages. We also plan to post letters to all the clubs, Dayalan said.

``I am confident that even Veerappan, who is a Rajni fan, is aware of the superstar's involvement in resolving the hostage crisis and will soon release Rajkumar and others'', Sendhil said.

K Ganesh, a Kannadiga who has been living in Sathyamangalam for the past 40 years and who is also vice-president of Rajnikanth Fans Association, said that there are more than one lakh Kannadigas in Sathi taluk alone.

``Though we are a linguistic minority, we have more than half a dozen Vokkaligara Mahajana Sangha apart from Devanga Shetty and other caste-based organisations at Thatapalli, Pathamagalam, Pullipatti, Kodimudi, Thirpalam, Pudduvadavalli and other neighbouring villages'', he said.

Mahadeva, a Mandram and Vokkaligara Sangha member said that fellow neighbours (Tamilians) stopped from moving out of their villages during the Cauvery riots. ``We were given moral support by the local people and the Rajni Fans Association under the direction of Central Committee, provided free food and clothes to Tamils who fled border villages.

``If aiah (Rajni) gives a call, we are prepared to enter the forest to get Rajkumar released. But, we can't take any decision on our own which would tarnish the image of Rajnikanth or affect the hostages,'' the fans added.

He said that Rajnikanth Fans Association presidents in Bhavani Sagar, Talavadi and Sathyamangalam hoblis have been directed to educate and organise members to make sure that nothing untoward happens and tensions are defused, particularly in Talavadi, were a lot of Kannadigas live.