DMK to observe year long birth centenary celebrations of Karunanidhi

CHENNAI: DMK on Sunday decided to celebrate the birth centenary of late party president and former chief minister M Karunanidhi grandly with year-long events starting from a public meeting to setting up of Kalaignar statues in all the party districts and assistance to party seniors and setting up of study centres.

According to the resolution adopted at the party’s high-level executive committee meeting chaired by DMK president MK Stalin, the birth centenary public meeting would be held on June 3 with the participation of the Secular Progressive Alliance in North Chennai.

On June 20, the Kalaignar Kottam built at Kattur in Tiruvarur, the native town of Karunanidhi, would be inaugurated by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, it said.

The resolution instructed the party’s district unit to hold the birth centenary celebrations for a year-long with events highlighting the Dravidian movement ideologies and achievements of Kalaignar starting from June 3 this year to June 3, 2024.

Given Karunanidhi's birth centenary, the resolution said that efforts should be made to erect lifesize statues and busts of the DMK patriarch following the government's regulations in every party district.

Calling upon all its party units to offer floral tributes to the portrait of Kalaignar on June 3, DMK instructed its party branches to replace the party’s old flag poles as part of the centenary celebration. “ As the DMK is about to step into its 75th year, we have reached the proud state that there are no villages in the state without party flagpoles,” it said.

DMK ordered its district units to hold seminars and public meetings under the title of “Kalaignar Forever” with people from various fields. It also wanted to open modern Kalaignar Centenary Study Centres with internet and computer facilities for public usage. DMK was a movement that opened study centres turning people into intelligent democratic forces, it said.

The meeting resolves to celebrate the centenary of Karunanidhi, the sculptor who built modern Tamil Nadu, in a spirited, thorough and effective manner throughout the year so that the fame of Kalaignar will be enshrined in the hearts of everyone in the state.