This Article is From Apr 13, 2012

Blog: Tamil New Year Politics

Blog: Tamil New Year Politics
It's Tamil New Year's Day today, courtesy J. Jayalalithaa! This is just one of the decisions of her predecessor and DMK Chief that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has reversed.

All along, 14 April was the start of the official Tamil New Year. It's the first month of the Tamil solar calendar - 'Chithirai'. (This year it has come a day earlier because of the leap year) When Mr Karunanidhi was in power, he had advanced the Tamil New Year Day to 14 January, coinciding with Pongal - the harvest festival during the Tamil month of 'Thai'.

The 'reverse swing' in Tamil Nadu started on day one when Jayalalithaa came driving in to Fort St. George to begin her third innings as Chief Minister instead of the New Secretariat Complex built by Mr Karunanidhi.

Soon came the announcement that the mega complex would be converted into a multi-speciality hospital. Then came the scrapping of the uniform syllabus and the move to turn the Anna Centenary Library - another pet project of Mr Karunanidhi into a children's hospital.

The controversial moves were challenged in court. Caught in the crossfire of Dravidian politics were thousands of school students who finally got relief from the Supreme Court which cleared the decks for the uniform syllabus.

The Tamil Nadu Government fanfare includes a slew of programmes - debates, poetry recitation and presentation of awards to Tamil scholars.

Jayalalithaa  presides over the celebration. But away from the literary extravaganza, the underlying message is obvious. By reinstating Tamil New Year's Day to the original date, Jayalalithaa has yet again seized the opportunity to challenge Mr Karunanidhi's projection as the main, if not the sole repository of Tamil pride.

Remember, she played the Eelam card before the Lok Sabha poll in 2009, passed a resolution in the Assembly against Lanka on war crimes and stepped up pressure on the Centre to vote against the Rajapaksa regime in the UN?

In politically surcharged Tamil Nadu, there is politics even in celebration. Puthandu Vazthugal!
 
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