75 YEARS OF DEFINING TN'S SOCIO-POLITICAL COURSE

WHEN a couple of journalists from Pravda, a Russian newspaper, interviewed the late DMK chief Kalaingar M Karunanidhi in Chennai in 1965 and asked about the DMK's ultimate goal, he said, “Equality and rationalism in society, socialism in economy, and democracy in politics.

- K EZHILARASAN & S KUMARESAN

" That was two years before the party captured power in Tamil Nadu in 1967.

Has the party remained true to those principles enunciated by Karunanidhi after it came to power or over the 75 years of its existence? If that is a question to be asked now, the answer could be that the party has consistently worked to promote social and political equality and states' rights but it cannot pride itself to be an atheists' camp now, though most of its top leaders are. The party did not stray much from its ideological moorings despite facing a series of splits, political turmoil, and attacks from various quarters over the years.

As the DMK celebrates its diamond jubilee, its basic ideologies such as anti-Hindi standpoint and demand for state autonomy and social justice, which were just Tamil Nadu phenomena during the fledgling days of the party, have now started resonating with parties of all shades across the country.