Tamil opposition to fight Governor unitedly

Chennai: Political parties that were part of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance in the State would put up a united show against Governor R N Ravi, who had been repeatedly making disparaging statements against Tamil Nadu with the latest one on naming the State as ‘Tamilagam’ instead of Tamil Nadu, CPM State secretary K. Balakrishnan said.

Speaking to the media at the Secretariat after calling on Chief Minister M K Stalin on Saturday, along with party colleague and former MP from Kanyakumari district, A V Bellarmine, he said that since the Governor had been hurting the people’s sentiments they urged Stalin to lead the campaign against him.

One of the purposes of their meeting with the Chief Minister was to invite him to attend a party meeting in which Communist icon Che Guevara’s daughter Aledida Guevara is expected to participate on January 18, he said.

Aledida Guevara is currently in Kerala, attending the national conference of AIDWA that was inaugurated on Friday.

Balakrishnan said that he and Bellarmine also invited the Chief Minister to take part in the bi-centenary year celebrations of Ayya Vaikundar, founder of the Ayyavazhi cult, to be organised in Kanyakumari district in February. Stalin had agreed to look into it, he said.

Two top leaders of the CPM visiting the Chief Minister as emissaries of the Ayyavazhi religious cult, however, caused the raising of eyebrows. When the cult has its own spiritual heads, why should a former CPM MP represent them?