Chennai: President Ram Nath Kovind recalled the memories of the former Chief Minister Late M Karunanidhi, who served the state as CM for a long period to the state. He commemorated Assembly on Monday on the occasion of the centenary celebrations of Madras legislative council. President Ram Nath Kovind unveiled the Former Chief Minister Late M Karunanidhi’s portrait in the Assembly hall.

President Ram Nath Kovind recalled that the former Chief Minister Late Karuna Nidhi was fondly called as “Kalaignar” started his political carrier right in his teen years. He listed the “Kalaignar’s “ contribution to the Tamil people through his ruling abolition of the Devadasi System, widow remarriage, mid-day meals in schools and distribution of agricultural land to the landless as some of the revolutionary ideas from the legislature that transformed society.

When Karunanidhi was a an young boy fired by ideals he had started working for the downtrodden, India was in shackles, exploited under foreign rule for long years, stricken by poverty and illiteracy. When he breathed his last, he must have been satisfied that this land and its people had made astounding progress and development on all fronts, the President added.

தமிழே உயிர்மூச்சு; தமிழினத்துக்குத் தொண்டாற்றுவதே தன் கடமை என்று வாழ்ந்த தமிழன்னையின் தலைமகன் முத்தமிழறிஞர் கலைஞர் அவர்களின் திருவுருவப்படம் நாட்டின் முதல் குடிமகனான @rashtrapatibhvn அவர்களால் சட்டமன்றத்தில் திறந்து வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது.

வாழ்க கலைஞர் புகழ்!#KalaignarInAssembly pic.twitter.com/PQ2YHrl0ms

— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) August 2, 2021

Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit said that Karunanidhi was very familiar with all the Presidents and Prime Ministers of India as well as the Chief Ministers of several states and Chiefs of various political parties in his political carrier in a span of seven decades. He stands as a role model for the Members of the Legislature at all times, he added.

The Governor recalled that the first woman Legislator of modern India, Dr. Muthu Lakshmi Reddy, joined the Madras Legislative Council in 1927. This was made possible because the first Legislative Council voted in favour of the women’s suffrage resolution in 1921. Recalling the victory of the Justice Party in the first election to the Madras legislative council in 1920, Chief Minister MK Stalin said Karunanidhi, his father, in 1997, celebrated the platinum jubilee of the Madras Legislature as well as the diamond jubilee of the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin in his address in the Assembly said the resolution demanding the implementation of the Mandal Commission report, legislation to ensure appointment of all-caste archakas, the law for abolishing entrance examinations in the State, were important milestones in the history of the State legislature.

TN Assembly Speaker M Appavu in his address said when the Madras Legislative Council was formed in 1921; it was a new beginning heralded by the people of the Madras Presidency, which included TN as well as parts of Kerala, Karnataka, AP, Telangana, Odisha and Lakshadweep. He noted that veteran journalist TJS George, associated with TNIE, and had hailed Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) as the only leader in the State who achieved so much for a generation of people in TN.

Main opposition party in the Assembly AIADMK not presented the event, its allies, BJP and PMK, attended. BJP State president K Annamalai and floor leader in the State Assembly Nainar Nagenthran were present. Tamil Maanila Congress chief GK Vasan, PMK president GK Mani, TNCC chief KS Alagiri, Dravidar Kazhagam chief K Veeramani, former Speakers of the Assembly Sedapatti R Muthiah and R Avudaiappan were also present.