The Tamilnadu government could have avoided a major embarrassment had it been magnanimous enough to allot a space inside Anna Memorial to bury the mortal remains of DMK president M Karunanidhi, who passed away on Tuesday. Despite DMK leaders, including Karunanidhi’s family members M K Stalin, M K Alagiri and Kanimozhi, making a request in person during their hour of grief, the legitimate right was turned down citing legal reasons.
However, within hours, the same government was left with no other option than to earmark a space for ‘Kalaignar’ near ‘Anna’, after the Madras High Court intervened. Tamilnadu is known for its bipolar hate politics and at a time when the ugly spats between the AIADMK and the DMK appeared to be dying down, this has led to a fresh fight between the two Dravidian heavyweights.
After all, Karunanidhi was a Chief Minister for five times and his contributions to the State, language, arts and journalism cannot be ignored and undermined even by his bitter critics. Considering all these, he rightly deserved a place in the Marina, that, too, inside the memorial of his mentor Annadurai. By saying no to it, those in power have missed a chance to pay a fitting tribute to the senior most politician and ignored an opportunity to win many hearts with the goodwill gesture. But there is some solace in the State government not going on an appeal in the Supreme Court opposing the High Court order.