Confer Bharat Ratna to Karunanidhi, demands DMK MP Tiruchi Siva

DMK chief M Karunanidhi died on August 7 after a brief illness. The 94-year-old DMK patriarch had served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five times but was never a member of Parliament.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Siva said Karunanidhi was a Dravidian stalwart and the tallest leader of the country.

Karunanidhi contributed 80 years to public life, fighting for the cause of the downtrodden, backward and the suppressed people, he said, while elaborating on the achievements of late Karunanidhi.

"I would urge the Government to confer upon him posthumous Bharat Ratna Award which will be a real tribute for his outstanding and exemplary work which had left an indelible mark in the annals of history," Siva said.

In a break from tradition, both Houses of Parliament were adjourned on August 8 as a mark of respect to M Karunanidhi.

Siva said Karunanidhi had "a long list of achievements which will bring feathers in his crown."

"He was an outstanding orator, a prolific writer, a novelist, a short-story writer, a philosopher, a philanthropist and also a dramatist. He was an actor and he also wrote scripts for eighty movies. Sir, he is unparalleled and he made a mark in all walks of life," Siva said.

The late DMK leader was fighting till his last breath for social justice, secularism, state autonomy and self-respect, he added.

Many members, including Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, associated themselves with Siva's demand.

Ram Gopal Yadav of SP raised the issue of a dalit being beaten to death in Meerut. He demanded that the Centre should probe this matter. Yadav expressed concern over rising incidents of atrocities against dalits.

Sukhendu Shekhar Ray of TMC demanded that a museum on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and the Azad Hind Fauj should be inaugurated on October 21 at the Red Fort premises to mark the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Azad Hind Fauj.

"On the 75th Anniversary of the establishment of Azad Hind Fauj Government, a befitting tribute to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and the soldiers and martyrs of Azad Hind Fauj would be to inaugurate the Netaji and Azad Hind Fauj Museum at Red Fort on October 21 this year as a mark of 75th Anniversary of the occasion," the senior Trinamool Congress lawmaker said.

He urged the government that the Museum should be inaugurated only on October 21, 2018 and not on any other day "otherwise, it will be irrelevant".