Remembering M Karunanidhi: Interesting facts about the king of Dravidian politics
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Be it in power or out of power, the 94-year-old grand old DMK president Muthuvel Karunanidhihas had a remarkable influence on the political narrative of Tamil Nadu. He represents a heterogeneous and multilayered imagination of the Indian nation. In his 60-year-long legislative career, he never tasted defeat.
Today on his death anniversary, we share interesting facts about the king of Dravidian politics.
Coming from a socially and economically disadvantaged community, he entered politics at a very young age of 14
He was a part of the Dravidian movement and assumed leadership in dialogues and screenplay writing. He along with Annadurai has written innumerable hard-hitting social dramas that were used to promote Dravidian ideologies among the masses.
He was originally named Dakshinamurthy, but later changed it to Karunanidhi.
Karunanidhi became India’s first Chief Minister to hoist the national flag on August 15, 1974. Earlier, only Governors hoisted the flag on Republic Day and Independence Day
He was appointed as Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister on February 10, 1969, following the death of DMK founder C.N.Annadurai
Initially, he was a part of the Dravida Kazhagam of Pariyar and later due to ideological differences he and his mentor C. Annadurai started Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
Karunanidhi always advocated for the rights of transgender people. He included them in the constitution as third-gender, conducted reforms, and supported them in their employment rights.
Karunanidhi was known as ‘Kaliagnar’,by his followers for his contributions to Tamil literature.
In 1947, Karunanidhi wrote the screenplay and dialogue for the blockbuster ‘Rajakumari’, MG Ramachandran’s debut movie.
Going back to 1969 when the Indian National Congress (INC) had a split following a crisis, it was he who lent his support to Indira Gandhi to create stability in the government.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi would always be known as a great leader, a good administrator and someone that can be looked back to take a guide from in politics.