Chennai: Despite criticism from several quarters, MDMK founder Vaiko and hundreds of his supporters celebrated the 60th birth anniversary of slain LTTE founder V Prabhakaran. As per reports, the MDMK supporters cut cakes and held meetings at various places remembering the slain LTTE chief's struggle for the cause of common Tamilians.
The MDMK chief even condemned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for greeting Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa at the SAARC summit. In a statement, the MDMK chief said "I am terribly pained at the attitude of my Prime Minister. It's atrocious to commend the racist President who has killed several Tamils. And the PM of India is wishing him and I am ashamed of it. I condemn it."
Importantly, Vaiko's MDMK is an alliance partner of the BJP-led NDA in Tamil Nadu. Vaiko's call for celebrating Prabhakaran's birthday was criticised as an anti-India move and triggered tension with several parties demanding the Centre to ban such celebrations. Vaiko, a self-confessed supporter of Prabakaran and his idea of a separate homeland for Tamils - the Tamil Ealam – had last week called for celebrations and prayers in places of religious worship on 26 November, to mark the time of birth of the former rebel leader.
Senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy later urged Union home minister Rajnath Singh to issue a directive to the Tamil Nadu government to ban the move to celebrate birth anniversary of slain chief of LTTE chief, who was responsible for killing of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"These celebrations are being organised by MDMK leader Vaiko. MDMK must be ejected from the NDA and Vaiko should be locked up under the National Security Act," Swamy said in a press release.
