Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's wishes to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa for his success in the upcoming election in the island nation has stirred a hornet's nest in Tamil Nadu, with the opposition parties and even NDA ally Vaiko, MDMK chief, coming down heavily upon the Prime Minister.
"It has to be condemned strongly. The UN is debating on the nature of genocidal charges against Rajapaksa. Wishing him to come back to power would be like supporting the war crimes and violations of human rights by him," DMK president Karunanidhi said.
A few other opposition parties in the state have also condemned Mr Modi's action, he added.
Mr Vaiko took strong exception to Mr Modi greeting Mr Rajapaksa at the recent SAARC summit in Nepal.
He also faulted the Centre for 'saffronising' education.
"The Centre's idea to implement the RSS-recommended system of education is condemnable. The HRD minister should not try to change the syllabus recommended by the Kothari Commission and implement the
RSS-suggested education system," he said in a statement.
Mr Karunanidhi, however, hailed the Centre's announcement to officially celebrate the birthday of Tamil savant Thiruvalluvar, said, "This is one of the BJP announcements to be welcomed. I welcome the decision on behalf of DMK and thank the Central government. I also insist like the way his birthday would be celebrated by the Centre, it should also nationalise his work, the Thirukkural."
He, however, opposed the Centre's move to remove Tamil scholar and former vice-chancellor of Tamil University Avvai Natarajan from the post of vice-chairperson of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil.
In a question-answer statement in the party organ on Sunday, he said, "I wonder whether all these hasty actions are being done with the consent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Such unnecessary actions will not bring a good name to the Central government."
