Credits party for many of the socio-economic reforms the State has witnessed over the years

: At the celebration of ‘100 years of Justice Party’ organised by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at Anna Arivalayam on Tuesday, DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin fired a warning salvo against those trying to weaken the Dravidian movement and discredit his party.

“Nobody can even dream of weakening the Dravidian movement and the DMK. It is a movement that is still being led by our leader Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) and general secretary K. Anbazhagan, who are an intrinsic part of the Dravidian movement and the party. Nothing can defeat the DMK,” he declared.

Stating that much of what the people of Tamil Nadu take for granted were actually the legacy of the Justice Party and the Dravidian movement, he said, “the Justice Party ensured reservations for non-Brahmins, fought against untouchability, gave voting rights to women and laid emphasis on education for all. After DMK assumed power in 1967, Anna (C.N. Annadurai) ensured that Madras Presidency was named Tamil Nadu and fought against Hindi imposition. He made laws to legalise self-respect marriages.”

Underlining the role played by Mr. Karunanidhi in upholding the Justice Party’s traditions, he said the former had enacted a law that ensured that anyone could become a priest and created ‘Samathuvapurams’. It was because of his initiatives and push that Tamil Nadu got 69 per cent reservation, he claimed, adding that Mr. Karunanidhi was the only Chief Minister who supported the then Prime Minister V.P. Singh when the later chose to implement the Mandal Commission recommendations.

Senior DMK leader Duraimurugan said that every non-Brahmin must be proud of the Justice Party. “It is because of the Justice Party that the Brahmin leadership in Congress party was challenged. Every party in Tamil Nadu benefitted from the achievements of the Justice Party,” he said.

Taking a dig against AIADMK, he said that DMK did not maintain secrecy about who was its next leader. “When Stalin takes over, he will do so publicly in front of the world. There is no other person to lead the DMK and carry forward its legacy,” he said.

Former AIADMK MLA Pazha Karuppiah (now in the DMK) said that AIADMK leader and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was “an anomaly” of the Dravidian movement. “For a long time, I used to think that it was the strength of the Dravidian movement to accommodate someone like her. But later on, I realised she infiltrated the Dravidian movement,” he claimed.

Dravidian ideologue Suba Veerapandian recalled that Justice Party gave women the right to vote in 1921, much before the rest of the developed world. “It is not possible to destroy the Dravidian movement overnight which was built as a fight against the laws of Manu. The movement has had great founders, great yesteryear leaders and we have great leaders of tomorrow like Stalin,” he said.

DMK spokesperson Manushya Puthran said that it was important to reinvigorate the ideology of the Justice Party. “With an openly right-wing communal government at the Centre, we need to once again lead a movement against caste and religion in the country,” he said.