DMK chief Karunanidhi condemns PM Narendra Modi's wishes to Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa

CHENNAI: DMK chief M Karunanidhi today joined other political parties in Tamil Nadu in criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for wishing Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa a success during the upcoming elections in his country.

"It has to be condemned strongly...The UN is debating on the nature of genocidal charges against Rajapaksa. Wishing him to come back to power would be like supporting the war crimes and violations of human rights by him...," Karunanidhi said.

In a release by DMK, he said a few other opposition parties in the state too have condemned the action of Modi.

During his address at the 18th SAARC Summit, Modi wished "good luck" to Rajapaksa for the January polls in Sri Lanka.

Karunanidhi welcomed the Centre's announcement to officially celebrate the birthday of philosopher-poet Thiruvalluvar, as impressed upon by BJP Rajya Sabha member Tarun Vijay.

"This is one of the BJP announcements to be welcomed. I welcome the decision on behalf of DMK and thank the Central government. I also insist like the way his birthday would be celebrated by the Centre, it should also nationalise his work of Thirukkural," he said.

To another query on Karnataka State Minister's statement that caste-based census would be conducted soon in that state, Karunanidhi said, "I welcome the efforts by Karnataka government to conduct caste census. I also insist that the Tamil Nadu government should also accept the demands from various quarters and carry out caste census here too."

Karunanidhi opposed the Centre's move to remove Tamil scholar and former vice-chancellor of Tamil University Avvai Natarajan from the post of vice-chairperson of Central Institute of Classical Tamil.

Replying to a query, he said, "I wonder whether all these hasty actions are being done with the consent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Such unnecessary actions would not bring a good name to the Central government."

He also cited Madras High Court's stay on Natarajan's termination orders.