One of the senior pracharaks of RSS in Tamilnadu and Editor of Nationalist Tamil weekly Vijayabharatham, Sri M Veerabahu passed away on September 12. He was 72. He fell victim to covid-19. He was undergoing treatment at Rajiv Gandhi government General Hospital, Chennai.
Born in a lower middle class family of Tirunelveli town, Veerabahu joined RSS Shakha in early 1969 when he was 15. Soon he became Sangh pracharak devoting himself in Hindu consolidation work for the past five decades and more in several parts of Tamilnadu.
(January 14, 1949 — September 12, 2020)
He was Mukhya Shikshak in the annual RSS training camps and the commands in Sanskrit in his booming voice thrilled thousands of participants. His fearless attitude sent shivers in anti social elements as is borne out by what happened to a group of Communists in Kanyakumari. Veerabahu was a Pracharak there. He stayed in Kuzhithurai. A few Comrades of the town held out a threat to RSS. Veerabahu walked straight into the local Communist Party office and gave a stern warning to the inmates that if anti RSS propaganda is not stopped forthwith, they would have to face the consequence. It had the desired effect.
A young man in his 20s, Veerabahu was appalled by the 1971 obscene DK procession in Salem vilifying Hindu Gods and Goddesses.The result was total Bazaar hartal in the Arcot town where he was a pracharak then. He could thus inspire Hindus of the town into action successfully.
When Veerabahu was Vellore Vibhag pracharak, Vellore witnessed something historic. Sri Jalakanteshwara, the Shiva Lingam of the ancient Vellore Fort Temple, was reinstalled with grand fanfare in the temple after 4 centuries. Veerabahu played a pivotal role in this episode by motivating Hindu organisations and mobilizing public support in a big way in favour of the move. The Lingam had been removed from the temple to protect it from the invading hordes of Muslims. Thus the return of Jalakanteshwara in fact inspired the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi Movement in recent times, according to observers.
From RSS work, Veerabahu was assigned state level responsibilities in Vishva Hindu Parishad as well as Hindu Munnani. He led a team of Hindu activists in organising a massive Hindu conference in Tiruchirappalli, the hotbed of missionary activities.
Veerabahu edited Hindu Sanga Seidhi, a Hindu awareness bulletin that reaches every panchayat of Tamilnadu. He became, 8 years ago, the editor of the nationalist Tamil weekly Vijayabharatham published from Chennai. Even while he activated a group of thinkers and writers to take active interest in running the weekly, Veerabahu simultaneously concentrated on the circulation aspect of the weekly which touched 25,000 quickly and it is growing — because Veerababu perceived Vijayabharatham as not just a magazine but as a vehicle of Hindu awareness message. The growth in the strength of this Hindu Nationalist weekly was a constant irritant to the anti Hindu, separatist gangs in Tamilnadu. An always-upbeat Veerabahu saw to it that weekly publication comes out on a daily basis in the form of an e-magazine once Vijaya bharatham office building was shut down during the covid-19 lockdown. The online circulation of the e-magazine touched 2 lakhs just last week, but the author of this effective daily Hindu message, Shri Veerababu, did not live long enough to see its circulation touch the five lakh mark, a target he had set.
Among the mourners of Veerabahu’s demise across all social media were thousands of Hindu activists as well as pious devotees of all Hindu denominations. His body was cremated at 4 pm on September 12, observing all covid -19 norms at the Villivakkam crematorium in Chennai.
Credits: VSK Tamilnadu
