Tamil Nadu Congress president K S Alagiri condemns governor RN Ravi's remarks

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K S Alagiri has condemned the governor R N Ravi's remarks against missionaries who translated Thirukkural while unveiling the statue of Thiruvalluvar in New Delhi on Thursday.
In a statement on Friday, Alagiri said the governor had once again made 'poisonous classist' remarks, this time in regard to the Thirukkural. The governor while unveiling the statue had said the British wanted to evangelise India, and missionaries like G U Pope, who had first translated the Thirukkural into English, had presented a de-spiritualised version of the classic.
Thirukkural had been translated in 82 languages till 2014 and nobody had made such a charge against these works till now, Alagiri said.
"No RSS member has done any service to the growth of the Tamil language as missionaries like G U Pope, Veeramamunivar, have done, by translating several ancient literatures. The governor, instead of aiding the growth of the state, is only continuing to stall it through his actions," he said.