In a rare display of political bonhomie, AIADMK allies, including BJP, participated in an event presided over by President Ram Nath Kovind, to unveil a portrait of former chief minister M Karunanidhi in the Tamil Nadu assembly hall on Monday.
It coincided with the centenary celebrations of the state legislature. While AIADMK boycotted the event alleging “distortion” of history, saying it was not the centenary year, its allies, the BJP represented by TN chief K Annamalai, the PMK and TMC participated.
The President credited the Tamil Nadu legislature with nurturing the roots of democracy by focusing on governance to uplift the poor and purge the social evils. He showered encomiums on the late DMK patriarch Karunanidhi saying his “entire life was devoted to the cause of people in the state” and that he had left a defining stamp on Tamil Nadu.
“It would not be wrong to say that this legislature became the fountainhead of much progressive legislation which were subsequently replicated across the country to empower the weaker sections of society and strengthen democracy,” said Kovind.