‘Anna a role model in fight for regional rights’

Narayanasamy, who has been engaged in a tug of war with the Lieutenant Governor there since taking over as the CM of Puducherry, must owe it to Anna.

The DMK founder was the torch bearer for some of the pressing issues of contemporary India. From language to regional autonomy, he had set the precedent over 60 years ago. Anna had raised regional autonomy issues and challenged the centralization of power at the Centre and authority of the Governor over half a century before Narayanasamy had moved the court against Kiran Bedi.

That Anna was a political visionary was evident also from politicians of non-Hindi speaking states, including BJP ruled Karnataka, resisting the ‘contentious’ three-language formula proposed by the Centre, something Annadurai had done in the early 1960s.

Dravidian scholar K Thirunavukkarasu says; “Anna will be remembered even in the times to come. He was called lumpen and sectarian by other parties then. Now, the same parties are endorsing his views. Bharathidasan was called a racist poet then. Now, people are frantically searching for his words. Anna’s views on linguistic plurality is endorsed by the same Congress which once opposed him. His views on the powers of Governors and autonomy of states are endorsed by all non-national party chief ministers now. Periyar was considered extreme because he had also defied god. Otherwise, both these leaders have thought beyond their times. Be it Karunanidhi or Stalin, they will have to sit on the two leader’s shoulders to further the cause of the states and their success.”