RS Bharathi has to apologise to people of Nagaland & TN: Narayanan Thirupathy

CHENNAI: BJP vice president Narayanan Thirupathy on Monday said that DMK organising secretary RS Bharathi's remark on Nagaland people is highly condemnable.

He said, "RS Bharathi has not only insulted the Nagaland people, he demeaned, degraded and spoke with disrespect about them. It is highly condemnable."

He urged Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin to take action against Bharathi. "The CM has to punish this person immediately who has been a regular offender. It is not that the BJP does not know the history of the DMK. We also know how to talk, but it is not a healthy and dignified politics," he said.

He also demanded RS Bharathi to deliver an apologise to the people of Nagaland and Tamil Nadu. "We hope that the CM instructs, advises, or punishes this person. We demand an arrest of RS Bharathi, and he has to apologise to the people of Nagaland and Tamil Nadu. The CM MK Stalin has to clear his stand if he supports these statements."

RS Bharathi made his remarks while addressing a party meeting to celebrate late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s birth centenary in Ambattur on Saturday.

Bharathi slamming Ravi for “deliberately dragging” the party’s government into trouble by withholding assent to the Bills, said, “People of Nagaland, who eat dog meat, themselves chased away Ravi who was the then Governor. Then what will we as Tamils do?."

Hours after Bharathi made his remark, Governor Ravi hit back at the DMK leader in a short statement on X. “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 Mr Bharathi not to hurt a community of which the whole of India is proud,” he said.

Within hours, Bharathi, too, responded on social media, accusing the Governor of deliberately diverting the issue. Not stopping with that, he said the Gauhati High Court itself had said eating dog meat was part of Naga culture. He also attached a newspaper report about the court order and tagged DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin, Udhayanidhi Stalin, the party’s official handle and that of the IT wing.