While Tamil Nadu Congress Committee paid homage to Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister on his 30th death anniversary at Sriperumbudur, 30 km from Chennai, where he was murdered by the terrorists of the dreaded Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in this day in 1991, Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, wrote a letter to the President of India asking him to release the seven convicts in the murder case.
S Nalini, Murugan, Santhan, Perarivalan, Jayakumar, Robert Payas and P Ravichandran, the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi Murder case were sentenced to death by the Supreme Court. But the death sentences of six persons were commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court of India while that of Nalini was commuted under Article 161 of the Constitution.
The DMK , the AIADMK and other Dravidian outfits were trying to get the assassins released claiming that they have put in nearly three decades of hardship in jail as part of the imprisonment.
K S Alagiri president, TNCC, K V Thangabalu, former TNCC president and AICC leader C D Meyyappan led the party cadre at Rajiv Gandhi Memorial at Sriperumbudur in paying homage to the departed leader. Speaking to reporters, Meyyappan said he was making use of the anniversary to plead with the Tamil Nadu Government to help realize the dreams of Rajiv Gandhi. “Navodaya Vidyalaya, a public school in the lines of high end schools was a dream project of Rajiv Gandhi. He wanted all children in the country to get quality education free of cost all over India. This was part of the New Education Policy drafted by him during his tenure as Prime Minister,” said Meyyapan.
He pointed out that Tamil Nadu is the only State in India that continues without even a single Navodaya Vidyalaya. “My request is that the Tamil Nadu Government allows the setting up of such schools in the State,” he said . Tamil Nadu is the only State in the country which does not have a single Navodaya Vidyalaya though all districts in rest of India boast of such concept school.
The Dravidian parties’ hatred for Hindi and Sanskrit is the reason behind their opposition towards Navodaya Schools, said Dr Y R Johnson, a former principal of Navodaya Schools. “The Dravidian leaders are against teaching Hindi and Sanskrit because they identify these languages with Hindutwa. But the truth is that there are no rules that Hindi and Sanskrit should be taught in Navodaya Schools. These languages are optional in nature. I had pleaded with Stalin whm he came to Kanyakumari for election campaign to establish such schools in Tamil Nadu,” Dr Johnson told The Pioneer.
Though the Madras High Court had ruled that Navodaya Schools should be established in the State without delay, the Tamil Nadu Government got the order stayed by the Supreme Court. “The Kumari Maha Sabha, an organisation of educators and professionals are in financial crisis and it is incapable of hiring the services of good lawyers to argue the case in Supreme Court,” said Dr Johnson.
High end corporate schools charging five-digit monthly fees teach Hindi and Sanskrit while the Dravidian zealots look the other way. This has made learning Hindi and Sanskrit beyond the reach of poor students.