Tamil has reigned when DMK has ruled: CM MK Stalin

CHENNAI: Chief minister M K Stalin on Friday said the Chennai International Book Fair 2023 will take the best Tamil literary works to languages from all over the world.
After inaugurating the Chennai Literary Festival at the Anna Centenary Library, Stalin released 100 books including translated works, children literature, and Tamil textbooks for medicine and engineering courses. Stressing the need to introduce Tamil literature to youngsters, he said, "When people are divided by communalism and casteism, poet Thiruvalluvar's line "All are equal by birth (Pirapokkum Ella Uyirkkum) will unite them".
'In no other state is a political party also a literary movement. But, the DMK has developed itself through Tamil and continues to protect the language," Stalin said, adding, "Tamil has reigned, whenever the DMK has ruled Tamil Nadu."
Malayalam writer Paul Zacharia hailed the "Thisaithorum Dravidam", a project to translate Tamil books in other languages and books from other Dravidian languages to Tamil. "This project seeks to consolidate the Dravidian identity. It is for the first time in the history of the Dravidian people that such a decisive intervention has been made to project a Dravidian cultural and linguistic ecosystem. This stands unique in its objective of developing multilingual connectivity for an Indian language," Zacharia said.
"Such a project is very important not only culturally, but also politically. Because we live in times where concerted threats are being posed against cultural and linguistic identities of India. Sectorian forces are seeking to impose a mono-cultural, mono-religious, mono-linguistic authority on the beautiful, unique, multi-cultural democracy that India is. It projects a possibility of a Dravidian unity against such attempts and domination," he added.
The three-day literary festival will have talks and interactions with authors, experts, children writers and performances of various arts at the Anna Centenary Library.
School education minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, HR and CE minister P K Sekar Babu, school education secretary Kakarla Usha, director of public libraries K Elambahavath, and writer Bava Chelladurai participated in the inaugural function.