‘Honour Karunanidhi’
THE DMK has urged that the nation’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, be awarded to party patriarch M Karunanidhi, who died in Chennai on August 7.
The party said the award would be a real tribute to the late Tamil Nadu leader’s outstanding and exemplary work, which left an indelible mark on history.
Karunanidhi, who led the DMK for five decades, was its chief minister for 19 years, spread over five terms.
Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, DMK’s Tiruchi Shiva dubbed Karunanidhi the “tallest leader of the country and a Dravidian stalwart”.
“He lived five years short of a century, out of which he contributed 80 years to the public life, fighting for the cause of the downtrodden, the backward and the oppressed. He was an outstanding orator, a prolific writer, a novelist, a short-story writer, a philosopher, a philanthropist and also a dramatist.
“He was an actor and also wrote scripts for 80 movies,” Shiva said, enumerating Karunanidhi’s achievements. He said Karunanidhi was “unparalleled” and had made his mark in all walks of life.
“His life cannot be described in words. He was a staunch and untiring soldier.
“He was fighting till his last breath, for social justice, secularism, state autonomy and self-respect. I would urge the government to confer upon him posthumously the Bharat Ratna, which will be a real tribute to his outstanding and exemplary work that has left an indelible mark in the annals of history,” the DMK lawmaker said. – IANS