Coimbatore: Tamil was accorded classical language status in the year 2004 but it's only six years later that the Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi decided to hold the first edition of world classical Tamil conference.
The much hyped first edition of the world classical Tamil conference ends at Coimbatore on Sunday.
Home Minister P Chidambaram and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee are participating in the valedictory function. Karunanidhi has pumped in Rs 380 crore for the five-day bash.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister has demanded Tamil to be made an official language at the Centre; he also called for Tamil to be made court language in Madras High Court.
He also said that priority in government jobs will be given to those who studied Tamil.
But the question being asked by everyone was that why did the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) spend such a huge amount on the event that's drawing over a lakh people daily. Two hundred research papers on Classical Tamil seemed to be the only
good thing for the language at the world classical Tamil conference in
Coimbatore.
Even though academic discussions on Tamil actually take place in a smaller area but it's this open session which could accommodate around 60,000 people the ruling DMK is exploiting. Although they are meant to be literary activities, its politics that's spoken.
So while the audience expect talks on taking Tamil to future generations, they get to hear 'politics' by popular literary figures glorifying DMK chief Karunanidhi as the leader of world Tamils.
"I don't think the Chief Minister is looking at the conference as a political thing but whatever it means it will be seen only after the conference and not now," said DMK MP M Kanimozhi defending the party.
The conference is being seen as the DMK's attempt to derive political mileage before the assembly polls. But not always have the voters rewarded the party behind such conferences. In 1996, Jayalalithaa suffered a defeat even after hosting a similar bash.
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Ravish Kumar
Do try to read the Caravan magazine. Narrative journalism. Magazine has a diff touch. Published by delhi press. Open is also good. 6 hours ago
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Nikhil Naz
RT @TheHarrySingh: What would Dhoni's biography be called? A: 'Calmsutra' :-P @sanjaymanjrekar @gauravCNNIBN @NikhilNaz 6 hours ago
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