Five days of Karunanidhi's family singing

Five days of extravaganza to celebrate the classical Tamil is not wrong. But to use the public money and time to sing Karunanidhi and his family tunes only in these five days was wrong. None can deny the worthy contributions of Kalaignar. The world likes him as a script writer, dialogue writer, Tamil scholar, clever politician. But his performance as an administrator is abysmally dismal. Almost all the government departments are going negative. Especially the electricity situation in Tamil Nadu is worse. Giving everything free but taking away the self respect of people amounts to the worst indicator of DMK government. Who knows the final days of Karunanidhi's government.

While condemning Karunanidhi's worst performance as C.M, I strongly support the recognition of Indian languages in the official proceedings. It is a sad state of affairs that the Indian language speakers are looked down. A language should not be a barrier for the performance of people's representatives or for that matter any common man.

The Times of India writes on 29 June 2010,

If the Tamil Nadu government wishes to spend Rs 300 crore on a five-day bash in Coimbatore to promote Tamil, that is its prerogative. But chief minister M Karunanidhi has gone much further, sowing the seeds of divisive identity politics. He has demanded that jobs be reserved for Tamil speakers, and that Tamil be made the language of the Madras high court as well as an official language of the Union government. Given our diverse linguistic identities, reviving the old language debate is totally unnecessary. According to Article 348 of the Constitution, the language to be used for the conduct of affairs in the Supreme Court and the high courts is English. This is because the cases that come up for hearing before these courts may involve litigants from across the country. If Tamil were to be made the language of the Madras high court it would be a serious impediment to non-Tamil litigants. Similarly, job reservation for Tamil speakers opens a can of worms, as other states can make similar demands. Another constitutional guarantee, allowing Indians to live and seek work anywhere in India, would go out of the window.

Tamil is already one of the scheduled languages under the 8th Schedule to the Constitution. To suggest that it be made an official language of the Union government is simply unreasonable. Tamil just doesn't have the same universality as English ^ the language predominantly used by the Union government. In the interest of the state as well as the country, the DMK should not walk the path of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Malaysian Tamil Rights

Anger against the migrants is common across the world. Whether in Australia or in England or in America, the native population is becoming restless. But it is sad to see hundreds of years old Indian migrants in Malaysia are ill-treated by the government. Eight percent of the Malaysian population is ethnic Tamils migrated few centuries back to work in the plantations. The British colonizers keen to develop the rubber plantations hired ethnic Tamils from south India to clear wild forests and plant rubber trees for the industrial growth. Once they reached the alien shores of Malaysia, the Tamils have worked hard and gave their life to develop the remote territory. What is considered as the economic strength of the miniscule nation Malaysia came in a sizeable form from the Tamils. They sweated and toiled in harsh conditions to develop the rubber estates. Without the selfless service and work of the migrant Tamils, Malaysia may not have moved in the forward direction. Forgetting this commendable contribution, the Malaysian government which is predominantly dominated by the ethnic Malays negatively discriminate the Tamils. The common complaints of the ethnic Tamils are, adequate opportunities are not given for them in the government jobs and services, and they are treated as the second class citizens in their own country. This accusation however untrue may be at the deeper level, seems to be a open truth at the surface point.

For instance, in politics only 0.5 percent of the Tamils are visible. There is only one cabinet minister for the 8 percent of the population. In the government jobs only a fraction of the Tamil population is able to get employment and that too cronies of the ethnic Malays. This insensitivity of the state breeds frustration among the ethnic Tamils who have contributed immensely for the economic and social might of Malaysia.

The fact of the matter is the Malaysian political system is used to having a high mix of autocracy and bureau tic governance. The false democratic rulers of Malaysia are elected through the sycophant members of parliament from the ethnic Tamils. For a very long period the ethnic Tamils have trusted their own men and elected them to parliament in their predominant constituencies. Unfortunately the parliamentary representatives of ethnic Tamils have failed to live upto the needs of their community members. Despite multiple representations and complaints to the Tamil MPS, there is no sign of improvement in the lives of common ethnic Tamils. This has pressurized them to go to the streets and protest against the naked discrimination by the state.

One possible reason is the frustration of the bhumi putras due to the high mobility of the migrants. This symptom is developing across the world. Large scale migration being the by product of globalization is fuelling unrest around the globe. The Turkish migrants are hated in Germany for occupying every corner of Berlin and other important cities with their kebab shops. Indians are disliked for their over domination in London, New York and many other metropolitan cities of the developed world. Although the reactions against Indians have not gone too bad, I guess this is the beginning of the worst days ahead. The outrage is not against Indians but the expression of indigestion of the natives about the growth of migrant population. It is nothing but natural for the bhumi putras to express their anger and depression through violence. If the state is keen to avoid a showdown between the bhumi putras and karmaputras it is important to engage both of them in constructive activities. Malaysian being a tough state managing only wealth and development at least for the last two decades has failed to act on the waiting time bomb.