Didn’t offend Nagaland people, says RS Bharathi

CHENNAI: DMK leader RS Bharathi has dismissed Governor RN Ravi’s allegation that he offended Nagas and asserted he did not make any comment critical of the northeastern people.

Speaking to reporters, Bharathi said Ravi could not understand the language and emphasised that nothing was said by him, which was critical of the people of Nagaland. Only Ravi deserved a comment denouncing him and certainly not the people of Nagaland, he said.

Strongly criticising Governor Ravi, Bharathi made a passing reference to the eating habits of the people of Nagaland and TN and had said this was an ‘example.’ Ravi had been the Governor of Nagaland, and he is now the Governor of Tamil Nadu and that is the link to the DMK leader’s comment.

Bharathi had purportedly said that when the people of Nagaland, who eat dog meat, with so much sense of dignity, chased Ravi and made him run away from that state, Tamil people’s sense of dignity, who eat rice with salt, should not be forgotten.

The Governor had said: “Nagas are brave, honest and dignified people. Thiru RS Bharathi a senior DMK leader publicly insulting them as ‘Dog eaters’ is scurrilous and unacceptable. I urge Bharathi not to hurt a community of which the whole of India is proud.”