However, Southern Railway sources said the Railway authorities would not change the decision to invite the two Sankaracharyas, despite the DMK Government's protest, and maintained that the function would go on at Kancheepuram even if Ponmudi boycotts it. The sources said the Railways Department was secular in its approach and it was not unusual to invite important, religious heads of concerned areas to its functions.

Earlier in the day, Karunanidhi told the State Assembly that the Tamil Nadu Government would not accept the ``anti-secular'' move of the BJP-ledGovernment to invite the two Shankaracharyas, Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal and Vijayendra Saraswathi Swamigal to the function which would be attended by Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar. The Railway authorities should rectify the matter by tomorrow, failing which the State Minister would boycott the function, he said. Karunanidhi, however, maintained that the DMK regime did not have any ``enmity or aversion'' towards the Sankaracharyas. The respect held by the DMK Government for the Sankaracharyas was not less than that for the leaders/heads of other religions, he said.

The Chief Minister said local heads of Christian and Muslim communities could have also been invited for the function if the BJP-led Government was for upholding `secularism'.

Karunanidhi was replying to a special calling-attention motion on the subject moved by K Subbarayan (CPI). He, however, turned down the latter's suggestion that the House pass a resolution to condemn the BJP-led Government and the Southern Railway in this regard.``The overall opinion of the members of the House has been expressed. That is enough,'' he said.

Earlier, Subbarayan said the Centre had violated the principles of `secularism' and `political decency' by inviting the two Sankaracharyas for a Government function. He wanted the Tamil Nadu Government to boycott the function and condemn the Southern Railway and the BJP Government for the `lapse'.

C Velayuthan (BJP) said there was nothing wrong in inviting the two Sankaracharyas as it was a routine exercise to call the important personalities of the local area whenever a function was organised by the Government.

Leader of the Opposition S Balakrishnan (TMC) said this incident was another example, after the Saraswathi vandana controversy, of the Centre's attempt to project India as the country of a particular religion. Though the TMC was not `averse' to the two Swamis and in fact respected them a lot, it was wrong to give them a role at the Government function.

When leader of the AIADMK group RTamaraikani wanted to know how the Tamil Nadu Government allowed the participation of DMK district secretaries in the State government functions, the Chief Minister said the issue was a different one and it could be discussed later.

Meanwhile, Southern Railway sources maintained that religious heads had been invited to its functions in the past, including religious heads of the Christian community. They pointed out that for three Railway functions in Alleppey (Kerala), Reverend Bishop Peter M Chenaparampil had been invited - in January, July and August 1997. Likewise, Bangaru Adigalar was invited to the function to inaugurate the newly-constructed railway station at Melmaruvathur in Tamil Nadu in September 1998.

The sources said when C K Jaffer Sharief was Railway Minister, the two Sankaracharyas were invited to a function in July 1995 to open the remodeled Kancheepuram railway station. On June 29, 1997, at a function in which the then Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and the then Railways Minister Ram VilasPaswan participated, to lay the foundation stone for the proposed new line between Hassan and Bangalore via Shravanabelagola at Bellur Cross ion Karnataka, three Swamijis of the local Bellur Math were invited by the Railways, the sources added.