V R Nedunchezhiyan birth centenary: Stalin, Vaiko and others pay homage to late Dravidian leader

CHENNAI: Dravidian leaders on Saturday paid homage to V R Nedunchezhiyan, one of the senior leaders of Dravidian movement, marking the start of his birth centenary.
DMK president M K Stalin and others paid homage to the former leader at an event at party headquarters.
V R Nedunchezhiyan was called as ‘Navalar’ by C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi.
In a statement, Stalin praised ‘Navalar’ and said, “He was a pillar for DMK right from its beginning and was elected as the general secretary of the party in 1955. Navalar was the head of the second state party meeting in Trichy in 1956.”
In 1962, Navalar was elected as the opposition party leader and Karunanidhi as the deputy leader.
“When DMK won the first assembly election in 1967, Navalar became the education minister and Karunanidhi took charge of PWD. Navalar was also the chief minister in-charge after the death of Annadurai. Later, Karunanidhi was elected as the party president and Navalar as general secretary and M G Ramachandran as treasurer of the party,” recalled Stalin.
He said though Navalar joined had AIADMK, he was still a Dravidian follower.
“In 1996, when Navalar was sworn in as the chief minister, he took oath in the name of truth while others took oath in other names,” Stalin said.
He added that when Navalar passed away on January 12, 2000, then chief minister, Karunanidhi paid homage to him, who was one of the founders of Dravidian movement.
MDMK chief Vaiko also paid homage at his residence in Chennai.