A fresh political controversy has erupted in Tamil Nadu over Finance Minister Marie Wilson's remarks on the Tamil language and Christianity. Wilson said Christianity had taught her “love and empathy” and claimed that half the people could not understand this by reading Tamil, adding that she had read it in the Bible. The BJP has criticised the remarks. Tamil Nadu BJP chief Nainar Nagendran said people may belong to different religions but their emotional and cultural identity is Tamil, and demanded a public apology for what he described as denigrating the Tamil language.