Vice president C P Radhakrishnan paid tribute to muthuramalinga Thevar at his memorial place in Pasumpon in Ramnathapuram district
Madurai: Vice-President C P Radhakrishnan, governor R V Arlekar and leaders cutting across political spectrum including former chief ministers M K Stalin and Edappadi K Palaniswami paid homage to freedom fighter Muthuramalinga Thevar at the memorial in Pasumpon marking his 119 th birth and 64 th death anniversaries on Friday.
Radhakrishnan told reporters at Pasumpon that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would visit the memorial some day to pay tribute to Thevar. He said Muthuramalinga Thevar could have become Tamil Nadu ’s chief minister had he compromised his principles. But he chose to remain as a supporter of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, he said. Later, he told reporters at Meenakshiamman Temple in Madurai that chances for a Tamil to become Prime Minister in future were open. In a democratic country like India, everyone has that opportunity,” he said when asked if a Tamil could become a PM.
“There is always an opportunity for a Tamil to become Prime Minister. A brief power outage twice interrupted the Vice-President’s press interaction at the temple, marring the second consecutive day of disruption during a VIP visit. Energy minister CTR Nirmal Kumar attributed Thursday’s interruption during AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami’s visit to switching from generator supply to the electricity grid during maintenance.
Nirmal Kumar said the govt had rejected tenders quoting unusually high electricity prices and made no purchases at those rates, with fresh bids planned next week. He alleged suppliers were forming syndicates to inflate quotations and said power shortages affected several states, not Tamil Nadu alone. At Pasumpon, the minister said arrangements for devotees had improved, with an additional road, drinking water and toilet facilities. He said chief minister C Joseph Vijay would visit Pasumpon in future.
Stalin and EPS garlanded the statue of Thevar at the memorial and recalled the contributions of their respective govts for the memorial. Meanwhile, Vijay, along with Assembly Speaker J C D Prabhakar and members of the state cabinet, paid floral tributes to Thevar in Chennai.