CHENNAI
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Thursday passed a resolution at a meeting of its district secretaries disapproving of political parties using Tamil saint-poet Thiruvalluvar for political mileage.
“Be it any political party, it should avoid using Thiruvalluvar, who is common to all. It would become the cause for unnecessary law and order problems. Tamil Nadu government should ensure that such incidents do not happen in the future,” one of the resolutions passed in the meeting stated. The resolution was passed against the backdrop of recent incidents of defacing of Thiruvalluvar’s statue in Thanjavur and the BJP releasing an image of the savant in saffron robes.
Interacting with reporters, party treasurer Premalatha Vijayakant said the State government should “maintain law and order with an iron fist” over the Thiruvalluvar issue.
Commending the way the AIADMK government has handled the issue, Ms. Premalatha referred to the arrest of Hindu Munnani leader Arjun Sampath, who draped a saffron coloured shawl on Thiruvallvar’s statue. “We are saying do not bring Thiruvalluvar into politics. He is pure and beyond politics,” she said.
Asked about BJP national secretary H. Raja’s claim that Thiruvalluvar was only a Hindu, Ms. Premalatha refused to comment.
Another resolution condoled the death of Sujith, who fell into an abandoned borewell, and urged the State government to take steps to close all abandoned borewells.
The party also passed resolutions urging cadres to be ready for the upcoming civic polls and urged the government to pay attention to control the spread of dengue and re-lay damaged roads. On the seat sharing for civic polls, she said, “We know our strength. So do the Chief Minister, the AIADMK and the people. We are hopeful that they will give us seats based on our strength.”
Earlier, DMDK founder Vijayakant chaired the meeting in the party head office. His health was “super”, according to Ms Premalatha.
