Swaminathan Gurumurthy

Swaminathan Gurumurthy , also known as Thuglaq Gurumurthy, is an RSS Ideologue.[1] He was born to a Tamil Brahmin family[2] at South Arcot District (Madras Presidency).[3] He is also a journalist editing the Tamil political weekly Thuglak and a Chartered Accountant.[4]

S. Gurumurthy
NationalityIndian
OccupationChartered Accountant, Columnist, Political and Economics Analyst

He is the co-convenor of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch.[5] He is considered to be a Hindu nationalist ideologue; he has mentioned that he is not into electoral politics based on inputs from Swami Chandrasekharendra Saraswati.

Activism

He exposed the aggressive corporate expansion by Dhirubhai Ambani and believed Ambani's business practices were unhealthy for the nation. Goenka entrusted Gurumurthy with fighting and exposing Reliance Industries. Gurumurthy's articles in The Indian Express created stirs in the corporate world as they publicly denounced a culture of corruption within the troubled conglomerate.[6] India Today magazine ranked him 30th in India's 50 most powerful people of 2017 list.[7]

He has written articles in The New Indian Express highlighting the disadvantages of globalization.[8] His articles espoused the mission of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch and the RSS as well as an uncompromising commitment to the unity of India.[9]

He was the subject of media coverage when he publicly accused two then-senior Indian bureaucrats of being American moles. He indirectly named them in the New Indian Express article titled, "US plots Gujral-Sharif show" dated 20-09-1997.[10] Later, in his article "Not one mole, Mr Prime Minister and Mr Jaswant, but Two!" dated 27-07-2006, he explicitly named Dr. V S Arunachalam and Naresh Chandra Saxena as the two moles.[11]

Politics

Gurumurthy has never contested any election. In the 2014 General Election another person, a namesake of Gurumurthy who spelled his name differently ("S Gurumoorthy") was chosen by the Bharatiya Janata Party as its candidate in the Nilgiris parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu. Gurumurthy denied that he was the candidate in Nilgiris through tweets and interviews. The 4 September 2014 issue of The Hindu carried a news item titled, "Baffled by the unexpected spotlight,"[12] in which it said "First his friends called to congratulate him for contesting from Nilgiris Lok Sabha Constituency. Even as he explained that he was not in the fray, another round of calls came on Monday from many who wondered why his nomination papers were rejected. Gurumurthy, Chartered Accountant and columnist, was baffled when his photo was flashed in some television channels which claimed that he was the BJP's candidate in the Nilgiris constituency." The New Indian Express on 8 April 2014 published a clarification, "1 Name, 2 Persons, Too Many Queries", for various news channel's faux pas in mentioning chartered accountant, S Gurumurthy as the candidate who was disqualified from Nilgiris.[13]

Influence on the AIADMK

Gurumurthy in December 2017, in a tweet called Chief Miniser K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam as "impotent leaders" for their action against the supporters of TTV Dhinakaran, when AIADMK lost the RK Nagar Polls. Later he said had used the term, "impotent," in a political context.[14] Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said he would take legal action against Gurumurthy, if necessary, for his grossly offensive views.[15]

Gurumurthy fuelled a controversy in November 2019 when he claimed in a speech that he was the one who ignited revolt in the AIADMK party, which prompted Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam to carry out 'dharmayudham' (a war for justice) after Jayalalitha's death in 2017.[16] Gurumurthy's also revealed that he told O. Pannerselvam that he was not "man enough" to take on the V.K Sasikala's faction after Jayalalithaa’s death.[17] He continued to criticize the ruling government of AIADMK, calling it "a gang of robbers. This received him criticism from the AIADMK. Later he clarified that he only said that why the AIADMK workers were so spineless for prostrating at Sasikala's feet. This created yet another round of criticisms.[16][18]

Controversy

Speech on women's feminity

Gurumurthy created a controversy when he said that only 30% of the women are feminine in India during a speech at a hospital in Chennai.[19] He also said that femininity has diminished in the present day women and the number of feminine women in India has decreased and women who are not feminine have become more. He also said women in femininity are like deities and he cannot accept women who are not feminine as deities.[20] The speech received wide range of criticism.[21] The All India Democratic Women's Association protested in Puliyakulam against him for his comments on women.[22]

Notes
  1. "How RSS Ideologue Gurumurthy Shook up RBI and Became One of the Most Influential Economic Voices". News18. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  2. "A paradigm shift". India Today. 25 November 2011. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  3. "The Importance and Unimportance of S. Gurumurthy". The Wire. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  4. "India is secular because it is Hindu".
  5. "Bhatt vs Gujarat govt: Hacked email vs email". Retrieved 8 August 2011.
  6. Hamish McDonald (1999). The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-86448-468-7.
  7. "India's 50 powerful people". India Today. 14 April 2017.
  8. "A Debate On GATT". 15 January 1994. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  9. "S. GURUMURTHY". Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  10. "US plots Gujral-Sharif show". 20 September 2007. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  11. "Not one mole, Mr Prime Minister and Mr Jaswant, but Two!". 27 July 2006. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 17 December 2008.
  12. "Baffled by the unexpected spotlight". The Hindu. 8 April 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  13. Express News Service (8 April 2014). "1 Name, 2 Persons, Too Many Queries". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  14. "War of words erupts over Gurumurthy's comments". The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 27 December 2017. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 13 July 2020.CS1 maint: others (link)
  15. Staff, TNM (27 December 2017). "'Only impotent talk about impotency': TN minister slams S Gurumurthy for comments". www.thenewsminute.com. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  16. Nath, Akshaya; Vasudevan, Lokpria (25 November 2019). "RSS ideologue Gurumurthy claims he was the reason that sparked revolt in AIADMK, clarifies later". India Today. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  17. Rao, Manasa (25 November 2019). "'Referred to all of AIADMK': Gurumurthy backtracks on OPS comment". www.thenewsminute.com. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  18. "After his controversial 'man enough' comment on OPS, RSS ideologue backtracks". The Week. Retrieved 13 July 2020.
  19. "இந்தியாவில் பெண்மை உள்ள பெண்கள் 30% பேர்தான்: எஸ்.குருமூர்த்தி சர்ச்சை பேச்சு". Dinamani. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  20. ""பெண்மையை நாம் இழந்து வருகிறோம்"- குருமூர்த்தி". Puthiyathalaimurai (in Tamil). Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  21. I, Shyamsundar (25 August 2019). "இந்தியாவில் பெண்மை உள்ள பெண்கள் 30% பேர்தான் உள்ளனர்.. எஸ்.குருமூர்த்தி சர்ச்சை பேச்சு.. வைரல்!". tamil.oneindia.com (in Tamil). Retrieved 19 July 2020.
  22. Team, SimpliCity News (28 August 2019). "All India Democratic Women's Association protest against Thuglaq editor Gurumoorthy for criticising women". simplicity.in. Retrieved 19 July 2020.
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