Chennai: The DMK working president M.K. Stalin on Friday pledged to take the party in the direction set by his father and party patriarch, the late M. Karunanidhi.
“In our public life, Periyar, Anna and Kalaignar are three powerful forces who will guide our path; Thalaivar (Kalaignar) may have left us, but his words and deeds spanning eight decades of public life are perennial and life-giving to the people of Tamil Nadu. Till now, his physical presence directed our acts, henceforth it is his ethos and feelings that will govern our actions,” Mr. Stalin wrote in a moving letter to DMK cadres to mark the 75th anniversary of 'Murasoli' which his father launched on August 10, 1942 and which was to later become party organ.
Describing 'August 10' as a momentous occasion, Mr. Stalin said this “is one day which is etched in golden words in the historic saga of Kalaignar's life, for it was on this day that year (1942), his first child, 'Murasoli' was born.” The organ grew to be “sword and shield” of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in subsequent years.
Paying rich tributes to the memory of his father barely three days after his demise, Mr. Stalin said no other movement in the state had seen such a leader as 'Kalaignar'. And equally, no other leader had been gifted with such cadres as his father was, the party's working president said, to stress how the late Karunanidhi had functioned so effectively to endear himself to the party and people at large.
“The voice that rejuvenated our flesh, nerves, bones and blood may not be heard anymore. Your towering presence as our shield and sword grooved us into an unworried disposition. But that luxury has now left us, inflicting us with pain,” Mr. Stalin said adverting to a void that Karunanidhi's departure has left and how he himself feels like one who has lost all his possessions.
However, with Karunanidhi having spoken and written so voluminously on various issues that was equal to what a man could do for another 100 years, “his writings and speeches will be the charter of the DMK,” Mr. Stalin added.
