Bharatiya Janata Party MP Tarun Vijay, who is on a yatra to propagate the ‘Tirukkural,’ said that Tamils did not have to demand making of saint-poet Tiruvalluvar’s work a national book, as its significance was more than the status of a national book.
“The ‘Tirukkural,’ which is more than 2,000 years old, is a ‘constitution’ of Indian culture, tradition, spirituality. The ‘Tirukkural’ is a greater ‘constitution’ governing our mind, soul and society,” he said.
On the agitations in rural pockets of the State demanding lifting of ban on ‘jallikattu’, Mr. Vijay said that he would support it.
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“Poor farmers are not slaughterer or butchers,” he said when it was pointed out that ‘jallikattu’ was not a bullfight, but an event where bulls are tamed. “It is a colour in the Indian cultural VIBGYOR and fragrance of our civilisation,” he said.
Stating that India was not just all about North Indian poets like Tulsidas and Valmiki, he said it would be incomplete unless the ‘Tirukkural,’ Tiruvalluvar, Subramaniya Bharati, Andal and Kannagi were included.
“The glories of great kings like Raja Raja Cholan, who had the biggest naval force, had not been propagated in the North. Not even a single book, including the textbook of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), has a mention of these great kings of Tamil Nadu, he said, adding he would fight for that.
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Mr. Vijay said that he did not want to join issue with the accusation made against him of trying to gain political mileage in Tamil Nadu with the ‘Tirukkural.’
He said he was here to make it clear that Tamils with the ‘Tirukkural’ had formulated the universal message of love, equality, harmony and compassion.