DMK working president M.K Stalin has urged the people of Tamil Nadu to give Tamil names to their children revealing why his father and DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi gave him a non-Tamil name.
DMK working president M.K Stalin has urged the people of Tamil Nadu to give Tamil names to their children revealing why his father and DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi gave him a non-Tamil name.
His statement came a day after he attacked the BJP government at the Centre threatening to initiate a 1965-like agitation if it didn’t stop imposing Hindi and Sanskrit.
Addressing a gathering at a marriage function in Chennai, Stalin read out the names of the couple, Aparajithan and Preethi, and appealed to the crowd to name at least their children with beautiful Tamil names, reported The Indian Express.
But, soon he revealed how he got a non-Tamil name.
“When I give you that advise, you may ask about my name. You are right,” he said, as quoted by the newspaper.
He then narrated the whole story.
“Actually my father wanted to call me Ayyadurai. Because Periyar (leader of the Dravidian movement) was called Ayya, and Durai was the name of C N Annadurai (former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK founder). But on the day of my birth, Kalaignar (M Karunanidhi) was attending a condolence meeting for Russian Communist party leader Joseph Stalin. When a note was handed over to the stage informing him about the birth of a boy, he instantly announced that he is naming his child after the late Communist leader,” he said.
Earlier on Friday night, addressing a gathering of nearly 10,000 people Stalin had said, “Let me remind you: our protests (anti-Hindi agitation) in 1965 had led to a regime change. And the same situation seems to have emerged.”
This statement came on January 26, the day Hindi was made the sole official language by the Congress government at the centre in 1965, which had triggered widespread protests and riots in Tamil Nadu. By regime change, Stalin referred to the DMK’s victory in the 1967 assembly election defeating the Congress, which never returned to power in Tamil Nadu since then. Congress government headed by Indira Gandhi had later amended the Official Languages Act in 1967 guaranteeing the indefinite use of Hindi and English as official languages.
He also accused the Modi government of promoting Hindi in all areas of life — from Kendriya Vidyalayas and CBSE schools to signboards on highways down to air and train tickets and ATM machines.
“It is all about safeguarding our culture, our language, our tradition, and our soul,” he said, clarifying that he is not saying that the DMK is itching to pro