Bharat Ratna is no match to Bharathi’s greatness, says Tarun Vijay

May 03, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:41 am IST - Madurai:

Tarun Vijay, Rajya Sabha member from the Bharatiya Janata Party, has said that freedom fighter and poet ‘Mahakavi’ Subramania Bharathi “is at such a great height that even a Bharat Ratna (the country’s highest civilian award) is a small gesture before his greatness”.

His comment has come following a representation made by Bharathiyar Thinkers Forum based here. The forum had requested him to prevail upon the Centre to confer ‘Bharat Ratna’ posthumously on the freedom fighter besides issuing commemorative coins and operating an exhibition train in his honour.

Replying to the plea made by the secretary of the forum, R. Laskhminarayanan, on April 24, the MP, representing Uttarakhand in the Rajya Sabha, agreed to persuade the Union Ministry of Finance to issue a commemorative coin alone in honour of the Tamil poet. “I fully agree with you that Shri Subramaniya Bharathiyar was a great freedom fighter and a symbol of national unity. His contribution for women empowerment is immense… I will try to have the Central government to issue a coin on Subramaniya Bharathiyar,” he said.

Expressing satisfaction over the reply, Mr. Lakshminarayanan said: “We are steadfast on our view that Bharathi deserves the Bharat Ratna. Nevertheless, we are thankful to the MP for having at least agreed to take up with the Centre the long-pending demand of issuing commemorative coins.”

He recalled that the Department of Economic Affairs, under the Union Finance Ministry, had on November 26, 2013, a fortnight before the 131{+s}{+t}birth anniversary of Bharathi, rejected a similar plea on the ground that there was “no special occasion or milestone” for issuing commemorative coins.

“However, curiously, the Centre had issued a gazette notification on December 18, 2013 for minting Rs. 5 coins to commemorate Jain religious leader Acharya Tulsi’s birth centenary. Those coins were minted in April 2014 and are now in circulation… We do not understand why Bharathi should be discriminated. Our wish is that coins carrying his portrait should be circulated across the country and an exhibition train operated to educate people about Mahakavi’s contribution to Tamil literature and the freedom movement,” he added.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.