Symbolic acts can build great practical value. By installing the
statue of Tamil poet-saint Thiruvalluvar in Bangalore on August
9 and that of Kannada savant Sarvajna in Chennai on August 13,
the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have gone beyond
cultural symbolism. They have begun a process of good
neighbourly engagement that can be helpful towards a resolution
of inter-State issues, notably the Cauvery river waters dispute,
on just and sustainable lines. For 18 long years, those who
claimed to be partisans of Kannadiga interests erected
roadblocks against the unveiling of the Thiruvalluvar statue in
Bangalore — not because they had any dislike for his celebrated
couplets on ethics and practical living, but because they saw
him as a Tamil icon, and therefore as a symbol of the interests
of Tamil Nadu. At a time when the Cauvery water dispute was
raising political temperatures in both States, Thiruvalluvar,
the beloved master of Tamil ethical poetry, became a subject of
political contestation. Later