BJP president Amit Shah on Thursday appealed to the people of Tamil Nadu to make the State corruption-free. The youth, in particular, should take a vow to deliver it from corruption, he said while addressing a conference organised by Devendrar Trust and Swadeshi Jagran Manch here.
It was unfortunate that Tamil Nadu found a place in the lists of both developed States and corrupt States in the country. Whatever development it achieved was entirely on its people’s strength but the scale of development was only half its potential, the BJP president said, even while asserting that he did not attend the conference to talk politics. Tamil Nadu, he was confident, would be the most developed State in India if it became corruption-free. The Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple was an example of how wealth earned by society in the past was spent. Such a temple could not be raised now even if 10 States joined together, Mr. Shah said.
Hailing the conference, which came out with the ‘Madurai Declaration’ to refer to seven sub-castes (now categorised under Scheduled Castes) as ‘Devendrakula Velalar’ and not as SC or Dalit, as path-breaking, Mr. Shah said that a new thought had emerged from here. At a time when there was clamour for OBC or SC status, here was an organisation that wanted to be called by its name without any tags. A beginning for a change had been made to unify caste groups all over the country by highlighting their individual virtues and not divide society in the name of caste.
New thought
S. Gurumurthy, national convener, Swadeshi Jagran Manch, said the new thought that had emerged from Madurai would find solution to many problems plaguing the country. There had been attempts in the last 60 years to destroy India’s social capital through western influence, improper understanding of caste dynamics and deterioration of values. Social capital should be protected at any cost, Mr. Gurumurthy said, and wanted the Devendrakula Velalars to be part of the ‘Hindu Bharateeya’ society.
“At a time when there was clamour for OBC or SC status, here was an organisation that wanted to be called by its name without any tags”
