Chennai: Two years after the then AIADMK Government decided to celebrate November 1 as ‘Tamil Nadu Day’ to commemorate the reorganisation of States on linguistic lines in 1956, the DMK regime is seeking to reverse it. Chief Minister M K Stalin, responding to demands from certain Dravidian ideologues, has announced that soon an order will be issued to celebrate Tamil Nadu Day on July 18.
The reasoning is that on July 18, 1967, a resolution was passed in the Legislative Assembly to rename the Madras State as “Tamil Nadu”. Besides, Stalin on Saturday said, there was a view among certain sections including Tamil scholars, political parties and activists that November would only denote the “border struggle” and not celebrations.
On Sunday, the opposition parties criticised the decision. AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam charged that Stalin was seeking to change the Tamil Nadu Day out of political grudge just to reverse a decision of the predecessor Government.
Panneerselvam argued that Stalin’s decision was flawed. “Though on July 18, 1967, the Assembly had adopted a resolution to rechristen Madras as Tamil Nadu, the Parliament enacted a legislation (approving the name change) in 1968 and the State was formally renamed ‘Tamil Nadu’ only on January 14, 1969,” he said. Therefore, even if the date is changed from November 1, the Tamil Nadu Day could be celebrated only on January 14, Panneerselvam said.
BJP State president K Annamalai alleged that the DMK Government’s intention was to “rewrite history”. “Last November 1, Stalin had greeted the people on Tamil Nadu Day,” he pointed out and added that, “Only a child’s date of birth is celebrated every year and not the date of the child’s naming ceremony.”
While DMK’s ally MDMK welcomed the change, another constituent VCK favoured a consensus to emerge on the issue.
Incidentally, during his last regime, DMK leader and Stalin’s father M Karunanidhi had changed the Tamil New Year from April 14 to January 14. Jayalalithaa, who succeeded him as Chief Minister, restored April 14 as the Tamil New Year.
