A few days after the Council of Ministers decided to urge the Centre to confer ‘Bharat Ratna’ — the country’s highest civilian award — on former Chief Ministers C.N. Annadurai and Jayalalithaa and rename the Chennai Central rail terminus after former CM M.G. Ramachandran, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wednesday wrote to the Prime Minister informing him of the decisions.
In his communication to the Prime Minister, Mr. Palanswami wrote: “Annadurai was the ideological fountainhead of major Dravidian parties. He stood for a politics that foregrounded social equality, self-respect and linguistic pride.”
Perarignar Annadurai had the distinction of converting the Dravidian ideology into a political movement and was instrumental in a regional party forming a government for the first time in the country. MGR was an iconic film personality and Tamil Nadu’s most popular leader. His birth centenary is being celebrated by the State government. It would be proper if, on the occasion of MGR’s birth centenary, the Central Railway Station at Chennai, one of the most prominent and iconic landmarks of the Sate, was named after MGR, the CM stated. Recalling a communication sent to the Centre on December 18, 2016, recommending the ‘Bharat Ratna’ award for former CM Jayalalithaa, he lauded the contributions made by her during her lifetime and reiterated the plea for conferment of the award.
