MADURAI: Even though 50 years have passed after the anti-Hindi agitation, the need for such a protest was still alive to save Tamil, observed Tamizhar Desiya Munnani (TDM) President Pazha Nedumaran, here on Sunday. Addressing the first state conference of the Tamizhar Desiya Munnani and the 50th anniversary of the anti-Hindi agitation movement held at the Tamukkam grounds here on Sunday,
Nedumaran said that the goal for which many sacrificed their lives has not been achieved till date and the status of Tamil still remains the same. English was ruling everywhere in the State, and the BJP government at the Centre was trying to promote Sanskrit as mandatory subject in schools.
Making a scathing attack on Dravidian parties, especially the DMK, he said that the party which gained political mileage through anti-Hindi protests failed to highlight the efforts of the language martyrs. Though the DMK was voted to power several times in the last five decades, the party did not uphold the purpose of the revolutionary protest.
More painful was that the party did not even bother to protect tombs of the language martyrs. The tombs of Natarajan and Thalamuthu, who died during the anti-Hindi agitation during the pre-independence era in 1938, have been left to ruin, charged Nedumaran.
Nedumaran, a close associate of former chief minister K Kamaraj, asserted that Tamil should rule in governance, education, all rituals should be performed in Tamil in temples and promoting Tamil music would be the apt way for paying tribute to the sacrifices of the language martyrs.
Earlier, he along with the party cadre, garlanded the statue of Tamil Annai, and released two books penned by him during the event.
Meanwhile in Thanjavur, the AIADMK cadre organised a silent march from Kamarajar statue in East Gate area and reached the old bus stand.
On behalf of the DMK, former Union Minister T R Baalu, Thanjavur south district secretary, D Chandrasekaran, paid floral tributes at the cemetery of Pattukkottai Azhagiri located at Rajagori here. Members of the Tamil Desiya Periyakkam paid tributes to martyrs at the railway junction.