Chennai:
The Dravidian arch rivals in Tamil Nadu are fighting over the Tamil New Year. The ruling AIADMK observes and celebrates Pongal as a harvest festival ushering in the month of Thai.
But the DMK celebrates the day as Tamil New Year too. On Tuesday the party launched its New Year celebrations with traditional food and folk art.
For ages, the Tamil month of Chithirai that falls in April ushered in the New Year. But in 2008 the previous DMK regime changed it declaring the harvest festival Pongal in January as the beginning of the New Year. Three years later Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa reversed it after coming to power.
DMK MP and party Chief Mr Karunanidhi's daughter, MK Kanimozhi told NDTV "Tamil People have been fighting and asking for this. This is very important for them and for the DMK. We do what people want. Historically Tamils have celebrated the first day of Thai as New Year".
But many including the AIADMK don't agree. K Balasubramaniam, a builder says, "No, these are based on planetary and astronomical positions followed for thousands of years. We can't change the New Year like this".
The state has witnessed many such fights in the power struggle between the two parties. In 2003 the DMK scuttled Amma's plans for a new assembly complex at the heritage Queen Mary's college campus on the Marina Beach Road. But eight years later Amma struck back, converting the DMK regime's 1200 crore assembly complex into a multi-speciality hospital.
The Anna Centenary Library in Chennai, another pet project of DMK Chief Karunanidhi too could follow suit.
Call it a rational approach or Dravidian politics if this trend continues, many say the AIADMK and the DMK regimes may well have their own seats of power and even Tamil Calendar, leave alone hospitals and libraries.