While it is still unclear whether former President, APJ Abdul Kalam, is still in the race to become the next President of India, a recent remark made by the DMK chief, M Karunanidhi, involving his name has snowballed into yet another controversy based on religious sentiments. Karunanidhi had made a remark that ‘Kalam’ meant ‘kalagam’, meaning chaos in Tamil, in reply to the media recently when asked about Abdul Kalam being in the Presidential race again. While no other outfits reacted to this remark and even Abdul Kalam had not reacted, the state unit of the Dravida Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam has taken exception to it. In a statement, the DMMK state general secretary G S Iqbal pointed out that his reference to ‘Kalam’ as ‘kalagam’ has hurt the religious sentiments of muslims. “We do not know from which lexicon the DMK chief picked up the meaning for the word,” he said adding that he had not understood the true meaning of the holy word. Iqbal said Kalam in Arabic meant the Holy Quran and Abdul meant a preacher. Hence, Abdul Kalam meant a person who preached the Holy Quran. While the party condemned the DMK chief for twisting the meaning of a holy word, it also demanded that he withdraw his remark. If he failed to do so, they would announce a series of agitations against the DMK chief, by uniting all muslims, he added.