DMK sends wishes for Telugu New Year but doesn’t wish for Tamil New Year

As Tamil people across the world celebrated Puthandu (Tamil New Year) marking the beginning of the new solar calendar, the DMK which claims itself to be an upholder of Tamil culture did not extend wishes for the same.

However, just a day before, the DMK and its leaders had sent wishes to people on the occasion of Ugadi, the Telugu New Year.

Extending wishes to Ugadi, DMK chief MK Stalin wrote in Tamil “Happy Ugadi New Year to the Telugu and Kannada people of the South Indian landscape who are a symbol of Dravidian language family ties!”

“We will cherish and preserve their languages and cultural elements, and we will work together to preserve the brotherhood of love without domination”, he added.

However, the neither the DMK nor its chief through an official press release or through its handle extended wishes for Tamil New Year.

Every year Hindu Tamils celebrate the 1st day of Chithirai month as the beginning of the new year based on the solar calendar. The festival is celebrated in different parts of India as well as the world under different names.

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Many lashed out at the DMK for claiming to be the champion of Tamils but not extending wishes for a Tamil festival.

The DMK Government in 2008 had declared that the Tamil new year should be celebrated on the first day of Tamil month of Thai (January 14) coinciding with Pongal and slightly closer to the new year as per the Christian calendar (January 1). The Tamil Nadu New Year (Declaration Bill 2008) was passed by the DMK MLAs in the Assembly in January 2008. This change to the traditional religious new year by the DMK government came under severe condemnation by Hindu priests and Tamil scholars.

This law was however rescinded by a separate act in the Tamil Nadu Assembly during the AIADMK regime on 23 August 2011.

Tamils across the world have ignore the DMK’s failed move and continue to celebrate Chithirai 1 as the Tamil New Year.

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