MADURAI: Amid widespread allegations of anti-Tamil stance of the BJP-led Central government, Minister for Cooperation Sellur K Raju said that BJP is the only national party that is promoting Tamil language.
Citing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recital of Thirukkural and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s recital of Purananooru at the Parliament, Raju said on Saturday that the Congress had never done anything of that sort before. “Modi has great respect for Tamil language.
Even during the Modi-Xi Jinping summit, the prime minister took the Chinese President to Mahabalipuram.” Taking a dig at DMK, Raju claimed that the late DMK President M Karunanidhi organised the 2010 World Classical Tamil Conference not for promoting Tamil but for honouring his family members.
He also pointed out that Palaniswami had intervened when a Tamil medium school in Ahmedabad was closed and also took steps when the posts of Tamil teachers remained vacant in Karnataka schools.
Earlier, following a letter sent to Modi by Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami to Modi, Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) included Master’s degree in Tamil as the minimum qualification to get admission to the two-year diploma course in Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Institute of Archaeology.
‘Submit white papers on investments, Covid works’
CHENNAI: DMK president MK Stalin on Saturday demanded the State government to release two white papers on the investments attracted and employment opportunities generated during the current regime and the procurement related to the Covid pandemic.
In a statement here, the DMK president charged that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami “failed miserably” in preventing the spread of Covid. “Every day, over 5,000 people are being affected by this infection, but to cover up his failure on this matter, the CM is engaged in false propaganda that Tamil Nadu has become one of the favourable investment centres in the country,” he added.
The number of containment zones has been going up in Chennai during the past one week. However, to divert his failure, the Chief Minister has been trying to cheat people by making tall claims about investments, he added.