Chennai

Stalin, who has been evading his elder brother as much as not mentioning his name even in media briefing, on Thursday made a passing reference to his estranged elder brother to drive home the significance of naming children in Tamil.

Attending a party workers family wedding in the city, Stalin referred to a few Tamil names given to his siblings and children and said, “My second elder brother was named Alagiri in memory of veteran Dravidian movement leader Pattukottai Alagirisamy, who was our leader Kalaignar’s mentor. Kalaignar has even documented Alagirisamy’s influence in his autobiography Nenjukku Neethi.” The surprising utterance might be nothing more than a casual reference, but it prompted even a few DMK functionaries at the wedding to doubt a change of heart in their party president.

Curiously, the thought of his elder brother was not the only surprise he had offered to party workers at the wedding. A nostalgic Stalin even revealed how his name had caused discomfort decades ago. Recalling his trip of the erstwhile Soviet Union as MLA in 1989, Stalin said that he was viewed with suspicion and quizzed at the airport after they had learnt from the passport that his name was Stalin. The DMK president had recalled how he was asked to change the name to secure admission in a popular convent on Anna Salai just because it refreshed public memory of Communist icon Joseph Stalin. “Our leader Kalaignar told uncle ‘Murasoli’ Maran that he would rather change the school instead of changing his name,” Stalin said, advising the newly-wed couple and to be married to name their kids in Tamil. Notably, Thursday was the second instance in the week when Stalin had emphasised on giving Tamil names. Even his party treasurer Duraimurugan had publicly expressed displeasure at party men not naming their children in Tamil a couple of days ago.

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