The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Chief Minister goes down memory lane

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 12, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Chief Minister goes down memory lane

R.K. Radhakrishnan

Recalls the memorable moments, people in Assembly

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi says the resolution adopted in the Assembly to name the State as Tamil Nadu always comes to his mind whenever his thoughts were on the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

In the golden jubilee coffee table publication that was released at a public meeting on Friday, held to mark his 50 years as a legislator, he says that he was very happy when MGR (then Chief Minister) called him to his chamber and asked him to suggest the caption for the Kamaraj picture that was to be installed in the Assembly. "I wrote: `Only hardwork brings success (uzhaippae uyarvu tharum)," he said.

Mr. Karunanidhi answered a set of 50 questions on right from his first day in the Assembly to the events that shaped the Assembly. Asked if he remembered his seat when he first entered the Assembly, he replied: "170."

He has been candid when talking about people whom he worked with. Asked to name five people whom he would like to listen to in the Assembly, Mr. Karunanidhi said party general secretary K. Anbazhagan topped the list. The others were K.T.K. Thangamani, Kumari Anandan, Abdul Latheef and Papa Umanath.

Asked to name a woman legislator whom he had admired, he said, Jothiammal. The MLA who could combine comedy with any speech was Dakshinamoorthy Gounder of Erode.

`Golden day'

Mr. Karunanidhi says that the "golden day" of the Assembly was when the he moved a resolution after the Mandal Commission recommendations were submitted. The State had urged the Centre to accept the recommendations at an early date. The resolution was adopted unanimously.

Asked to list a few laws that made him proud, he said the law granting equal rights to women, the enactment of the Land ceiling Act, the law that allowed people of all castes to become archakas were among the ones that came to his mind. The best welfare schemes were the marriage assistance scheme for poor women and the samathuvapuram project, where people of all castes and religions lived as part of the same community. Asked how he felt about being dismissed twice, he said that he always believed that power was like a piece of cloth one wore on the shoulder and that he was not enamoured of power. He found bigger contentment in working for people at the grass roots.

On some Congress leaders commenting that their women members would be able to take care of the 15 DMK MLAs elected in 1957, he said that he spoke in the Assembly that though they were only 15 in the Assembly, they had the support of 17 lakh Tamil people.

The coffee table book is a mammoth compilation of rare photographs and Mr. Karunanidhi's landmark speeches. It has sections written by all major politicians in the State.

Apart from alliance partners, BJP's L. Ganesan and S. Thirunavukkarasar have written on Mr. Karunanidhi's contribution to Tamil society.

Women MLAs, P. Padmavathy, Sakthi. Kamalambal, D. Yasodha and Balabarathi, have written based on their interactions in the House.

Poets Vaali, Vairamuthu and Kanimozhi have tried to capture the essence of his contributions in verse.

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