CHENNAI: Condemning Governor RN Ravi for his remarks on Mahatma Gandhi, Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Sunday said with the malicious intent, Governor Ravi is trying to tarnish the fame of Mahatma Gandhi.

Further, Stalin asked the DMK functionaries to hold religious harmony and pledge acceptance programs across the state on January 30, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Taking a dig at the RSS and BJP discursively, Stalin said, "Even after 75 years of Independence, communalists are still angry with Mahatma Gandhi. It is a continuation of the story that the right-wing forces denigrate Gandhi whenever they get a chance. They are trying to destroy the multi-faceted nature of India by tarnishing the fame of Mahatma Gandhi, who is a symbol of the unity of the whole of India."

"Governor Ravi's statement that 'India did not get freedom because of Gandhi' is with the same malicious intent. Their work of destruction is in changing the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi as 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'. It is an erasure of all traces of Gandhi. RSS did the same thing by holding a procession on October 2. But, we (Tamil Nadu government) stopped it," Stalin said in a statement.

Urging the cadres of DMK, Stalin said, "It is the duty of all of us to observe the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, as the day of religious harmony across the state."