Speakers at a function organised here by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee to celebrate the 110th birth anniversary of Kamaraj on Saturday traced his yeomen service, sacrifices and vision and took a pledge to revive ‘Kamaraj rule’ in the State.
Cutting across factions, the leaders shared the dais and spoke in one voice to restore Kamaraj rule. Even after about 45 years of the last Congress rule, the century-old political party survived because of the strong fundamentals and foundation laid by stalwarts like Kamaraj, they said.
The leader, though died about three decades ago, was still remembered by one and all. This alone would talk tall of his statesmanship. He was broad not only in his thinking but also assessed the needs of the common man and delivered without any hesitation during his nine years of chequered rule.
In his address, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said that the Congress cadres had the responsibility of driving the country to the next stage by spreading the ideals of late leader Kamaraj. “I would suggest to every Congressman to think broad like our late leader did during his lifetime…let’s not confine ourselves to a small circle or region and shrink ourselves. Lets be a model to others in the country.”
The then Congress president, Kamaraj, was unassuming and selfless. A classic example was that Kamaraj never got tempted, though the offer to lead the nation knocked at his doors, Mr. Chidambaram said. Instead, he made Lal Bahadur Shastry and Indira Gandhi as Prime Ministers and S. Radhakrishnan and Zakeer Hussain as Presidents.
Keeping such self-less sacrifices of Kamaraj in mind, Congressmen today should be different from other parties and think in a broader perspective. He wanted them to take this message to the next generation.
Union Shipping Minister G.K. Vasan took a dig at the AIADMK government for raising the prices of essential commodities like milk, electricity tariff and bus fare since assuming power.
At a time when the public were fuming at the revision, those in power claimed their one-year rule as something big to have been achieved and compared it to a century’s achievement, which was not so. “Look at the performance of UPA government at the Centre… Despite odds in coalition government, under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had brought in good roads, 100-day job guarantee programme for those in BPL category and many welfare schemes with huge allocations to education, health and family welfare.”
Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan said that the foundation laid by late leaders in Tamil Nadu was not only strong but also lauded and held relevance even today. While referring to the “restore Kamaraj rule” slogan, she explained that it meant good governance of Kamaraj would be delivered to the people.
The Congress should reach out to the masses with the rich tradition followed by Kamaraj, M. Bakthavatsalam and many others. She lauded the efforts of the TNCC leadership of organising such meetings. This was a good beginning to restore Congress rule in Tamil Nadu, she asserted.
