Reversal of Tamil New Year ''dangerous'' for democracy: Karuna

Chennai, Aug 26: Flaying the AIADMK government for reversing the previous DMK regime's decision to advance the Tamil New Year to January, DMK president M Karunanidhi on Thursday said the present situation not only posed a "danger" to democracy but also to the Tamil language.

The reversal of the DMK government's decision was an attempt by "certain people around (Tamil Nadu Chief Minister) Jayalalithaa who feared that the Tamil New Year starting with ''Thai'' (in January) would erase Aryan culture (from the Tamils)," Karunanidhi alleged.

Participating in the public meeting here, the 88-year-old DMK patriarch said it was time to safeguard not only democracy but also Tamil language and its literature in the state.

Justifying his decision to celebrate the first day of ''Thai'' as the Tamil New Year, he said Tamil scholar Maraimalai Adigal along with 500 other scholars zeroed in on the day, also celebrated as the harvest festival Pongal, as the Tamil New Year day.

On the announcement of converting the legislative assembly complex into a multi-super speciality hospital and a medical college, he said Jayalalithaa's decision not to use it as an Assembly complex was "only because it was built during DMK regime and it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi".

PTI