: The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Tuesday launched the centenary celebration of its founder and former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran.
The highlight of the day’s events was the visit of V.K. Sasikala, general secretary, to the residence of the party founder in Ramavaram where she unveiled a statue of the late leader and unfurled the party flag. Representing the Namadhu MGR Best Charitable Trust, she handed over a cheque for ₹10 lakh to Latha Rajendran, correspondent of the Dr MGR Home and Higher Secondary School for the Speech and Hearing Impaired, located on the campus of MGR’s residence. She also gave aids worth ₹19 lakh to students of the school and partook of food with the children and the students.
But Ms. Sasikala chose not to make any speech though she inaugurated a seminar organised by the Home by lighting the traditional lamp with Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam.
Among those who were present were senior leaders and Ministers, K.A. Sengottaiyan, M. Thambi Durai, O.S. Manian, D. Jayakumar, C.V. Shanmugam and K.P. Anbalagan.
Vaigaichelvan, spokesperson of the party, said Ms. Sasikala has demonstrated “her love and affection towards the children. Her silence has 1,000 significances.”
Claim to MGR’s legacy
Nine years ago, when the then AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa went to the Ramavaram residence, she had asserted that “we (AIADMK) are the political heirs of Puratchi Thalaivar MGR. No one else in the world can claim the right.” She made this observation at a time when Vijayakant, who founded the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) in 2005, was projecting himself as a “genuine inheritor” of the MGR legacy.
Participating in the day’s seminar, Mohan Kameswaran, founder-director, Madras ENT Research Foundation, pointed out that Tamil Nadu had the largest number of persons with hearing impairment and urged the government and people to ensure that the State overcame this at the earliest.
Earlier, at the party headquarters in Royapettah, Ms. Sasikala provided financial assistance of ₹1 lakh each to 104 indigent members of the Anna Thozhilalargal Sangam (the labour union affiliated to the party).
On behalf of the charitable trust, she also presented ₹50,000 to P. Natarajan, a long-time member of the party, who is in economic distress, and ₹20,000 to Sridevi, who is pursuing an undergraduate zoology course in Tiruchi, towards college and hostel fees.
