JOIN USCentre forgot Mother Teresa: MK
“The Central government should have organised country-wide celebrations to mark the birth centenary of the great woman-saint whose compassionate service for the downtrodden and working in the slums of Kolkata was acknowledged by the whole world,” Karunanidhi said here on Saturday night, speaking at a state function to mark the Mother’s centenary.
In the presence of former Union minister and one of the senior most AICC general secretaries Oscar Fernandez, Karunanidhi said Tamil Nadu was the only state so far to have organised a special programme to honour Mother Teresa’s memory.
Though the Central government—as disclosed at the venue by the senior Congress MLA, Peter Alphonse—had issued a Rs 5 commemorative coin to mark Mother Teresa’s centenary year recently, the DMK chief said that was not enough. “In fact, a centenary celebration like this held here should have been held in all states,” he said.
While using the occasion to reconnect with the minorities and shore up the DMK’s image as “protector of the minorities’ interests”, which had taken a severe beating in the wake of the “2G spectrum” sale revelations, Karunanidhi said his government had even earlier acknowledged contributions of the Albanian-born Roman Catholic nun by naming a women’s welfare scheme after her. He also reiterated his pledge to continue to work for minorities welfare wherever he was.
Expressing surprise that even the West Bengal government had not chosen to honour Mother Teresa in her birth centenary year, Karunanidhi nonetheless added it really made no difference as “celebrating in Tamil Nadu is as good as celebrating in Bengal.”
Yet, his dig at the CPM, which is in alliance with Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu, was not missing though, as Karunanidhi regretted that the Marxist government was still allowing the demeaning hand-pulled rickshaws in Kolkata when Mother Teresa’s message was to ensure self-respect of humans.