DMK leader blames BJP, RSS for denial of Marina burial site for Karunanidhi

Looks like it is the design of RSS to deny our great leader @kalaignar89 a place in Marina, tweeted DMK's Saravanan Annadurai.

DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai, who also argued on behalf of the party at Madras High Court bench for burial of M Karunanidhi at Marina beach, blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for the denial of permission by Tamil Nadu’s AIADMK government.

Taking to microblogging site Twitter, Saravanan attacked the BJP saying the party had been exposed. He tweeted, “Looks like it is the design of RSS to deny our great leader @kalaignar89 a place in Marina. The BJP stands exposed now, it is the BJP and its leaders who are opposing #Marina4Kalaignar.”

His tweet came shortly after the Madras High Court bench, comprising acting Chief Justice CJ Ramesh and Justice SS Sundaram, heard DMK’s plea against denial of permission by the AIADMK government to bury Kalaignar’s mortal remains near Anna memorial.

The development had triggered violent protests by DMK cadres outside Chennai’s Kauvery Hospital, where the five-time Tamil Nadu chief minister breathed his last at 6.10 pm on Tuesday.

DMK’s demand to get a burial site near Anna memorial was also backed by leaders of opposition parties, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Left leader Sitaram Yechury and D Raja also backed DMK’s demand.

DMK working president M K Stalin, recalling the long public life of Karunanidhi, had written to Chief Minister K Palaniswami seeking space inside the mausoleum complex of the departed leader's mentor C N Annadurai at the Marina.

Stalin had also met the chief minister hours before his father's death.

A government statement said it was "unable to allot space at Marina beach owing to several pending cases in the Madras High Court and legal complications."

Hence, the government is prepared to allot a two-acre site on Sardar Patel Road near the memorials to Rajaji and Kamaraj, it said.