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Coimbatore : The first World Tamil Conference kicked off in Coimbatore on Wednesday. Tamil language has often been a vehicle in Dravidian politics and the five-day conference inaugurated by President Prathibha Patil is seen as an effort to reiterate Karunanidhi’s image as a champion of the Tamil cause.
“Western Tamil Nadu and Coimbatore have had a glorious history in serving the Tamil cause”
“This is the first conference of the classical language. This has nothing to do with elections,” says senior DMK leader TKS Elangovan.
The conference was planned a year ago when the LTTE was defeated by the Sri Lankan Army and criticism that Tamil Nadu’s political leadership did little to support the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Now the DMK hopes the conference would pacify the critics and galvanise the party ahead of the Assembly elections in 2011.
AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa though has boycotted the conference and has instead demanded that Tamil be made the functional language at the Madras High Court. As Tamil politicians continue to compete to emerge as champions of the Tamil cause, it’s the state which has to pay the price. More than Rs 400 crore has been spend on organising the grand event.
But the DMK is undeterred by the critics. It hopes to make the five-day Tamil conference the grandest event ever, and more importantly hopes that championing the Tamil cause will help the party and it’s leader Karunanidhi emerge as the champions in the Assembly elections scheduled for 2011.
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