Draw rangolis with ‘Long live Tamil Nadu’ slogans, says MK Stalin to DMK cadres

Stalin also spoke in detail about the controversy over the Governor deviating from the address prepared by govt

“Let us welcome the first day of the Tamil month of Thai (Pongal) by drawing rangolis outside your homes with the slogan Vaazhga Tamil Nadu (Long Live Tamil Nadu),” DMK President M K Stalin told his cadres on Saturday, in what is seen as a reply to Governor R N Ravi’s statement that 'Tamizhagam' was a more appropriate term for the state than Tamil Nadu.

At a meeting here, the Chief Minister also took on the Governor, saying “someone is lamenting that we should not use the word Tamil Nadu” while recalling an incident when DMK founder C N Annadurai said his presence at an event to rename the state as Tamil Nadu was important than his life when people advised him to keep away from the function due to ill health.

While mentioning his son Udhayanidhi’s designation at the same meeting organized by DMK mouthpiece Murasoli and youth wing, Stalin deliberately used the word Tamizhaga before correcting it to Tamil Nadu with an apology, sending his party workers into a rapture.

This is the first time that Stalin has spoken about the Governor’s statement, albeit indirectly, though his sister Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, deputy general secretary, and son Udhayanidhi, Sports Development Minister and secretary of DMK youth wing, condemned the Governor for his remarks.

Interestingly, the Raj Bhavan also addressed Ravi as Tamil Nadu Aalunar (Governor) on Saturday while releasing his Pongal greetings, after it stoked a row last week by calling him Tamizhaga Aalunar.

In his letter to the cadre on the occasion of Pongal (the harvest festival of Tamils), Stalin also spoke in detail about the controversy over the Governor deviating from the address prepared by the government in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on January 9.

The appeal to his cadres to draw rangolis with Vaazhga Tamil Nadu slogans outside their homes on Sunday is a clear political message and signals the DMK’s intention to milk to the hilt the Tamizhagam or Tamil Nadu debate triggered by the Governor.

Stalin, in the letter, spoke about newspapers in the country criticizing the Governor for his actions in the Assembly and also referred to comments by P D T Achary published in the January 10 edition of Deccan Herald in which he said, “the governor cannot add even a full stop or comma to the text.”