Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Karunanidhi looks forward to ensuring Tamils’ safety

CHENNAI: Even as he received the Santhome Communications Centre’s Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday for his accomplishments as a writer, orator, poet, actor and statesman, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had a different list of achievements to commemorate – those which helped to lift the oppressed.

He listed the free eye camps, beggars’ rehabilitation scheme, replacement of the hand-pulled rickshaw with the cycle rickshaw, housing for the poor and the reservation for the minority communities, which have been implemented by DMK governments over the decades since 1969, as his most important achievements.

On Sunday, he announced that the government would implement the Justice Janardhanam panel’s recommendations to give 3 per cent reservation to the Arundathiyar community, whose members carry night soil, remove garbage and clean manholes.

Now, the biggest achievement he looked forward to was to ensure the peace and safety of the Sri Lankan Tamil community. That was essential for him to complete his life’s achievements, said the Chief Minister.

This year’s award for the best newspaper was presented to The Hindu. The paper has defended the values of secularism, communal unity and harmony, said Congress MLA Peter Alphonse, who asked Editor-in-Chief N. Ram to launch a Tamil edition of the paper.

Accepting the award, Mr. Ram said that the false bogey of conversion needs to be exposed.

Pluralism and diversity were central to the Indian ethos and those who assailed these values were the enemies of the country, he said.

The Tamil Nadu government’s immediate action in clamping down on scattered incidents of stone throwing at churches was an excellent example of good governance, he said.

If other governments followed the same principles, communal elements could be driven out of politics, he added.

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