Tamils should be identified only as Tamils and use of Dravidars or Adi-Dravidars abolished, said Puthiya Tamilagam president K. Krishnaswamy here on Friday.
Speaking to reporters, he said that the practice of identifying people with their mother tongue was in vogue from time immemorial. Instead of calling them Tamils (whose mother tongue is Tamil), descriptions such as Dravidars and Adi-Dravidars should go, as they were misleading and isolated a section of society. The term Dravidar or Adi-Dravidar never fitted with any race, he added.
Dr. Krishnaswamy urged the railways to lay a double track from Villupuram to Kanyakumari. The recent cracks on the railway tracks had caused panic among thousands of rail travellers and also resulted in undue delays. To draw the attention of the Union Government to this issue, a demonstration would be held in the first week of August in Madurai, he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Condemning the arrest of MDMK general secretary Vaiko, among others, he demanded their immediate release and urged the Union Government to intervene in the Sri Lankan Tamils issue at least now. “Ignoring the sufferings of Tamils in the island nation will never be pardoned by Tamils living around the globe,” he warned.