CHENNAI: State Cooperation Minister Sellur K Raju sought to know from DMK chief M.K. Stalin whether Kannagi hailed from Madurai. Ridiculing Stalin’s knowledge of the Tamil epic Silapathikaram (The tale of the anklet, authored by Ilango Adigal), Raju said the DMK chief appeared to have got the facts wrong.
“While campaigning for his ally CPI (M)’s Su. Venkatesan in Madurai Stalin talks about Kannagi’s just rule and that Madurai was her birthplace. When did she rule?” the Minister asked. Speaking to reporters in Madurai on Saturday he said the DMK chief’s speech was a comedy of errors. “He addressed Sonia Gandhi as then Prime Minister. When was she PM?” Sellur Raju asked.
Kannagi who forms the central character of the Silapathikaram (100 -300 AD) wreaks revenge on the Pandya King of Madurai for wrongly awarding death penalty to her husband Kovalan. She curses the entire town of Madurai.
While garnering votes for Venkatesan at a rally in Madurai on March 28, Stalin had said that Kannagi who demanded justice was born in Madurai. Also, while recalling the launch of Sethusamudram Ship Canal project (in 2005) in Madurai during the UPA regime, Stalin had inadvertently said “when Sonia Gandhi was the Prime Minister” but immediately corrected himself and said when Sonia Gandhi was Congress president and then Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh launched the project.
“There was a time when people thronged the rallies of late DMK president M. Karunanidhi to listen to his oratory. But now there are no good speakers in the DMK and Stalin’s speech in Madurai has become ludicrous,” the Minister said. He also claimed that Stalin addressed meetings “with half unoccupied chair.”
To a question on AMMK leader T. T. V. Dhinakaran, Mr. Raju claimed that “nobody was taking him seriously in politics.” “His AMMK is like any other outfit like Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) or Seemans’ Naam Tamilar Katchi," he said.
