Obituary blog

Karunanidhi 'last warrior of Dravidian politics'

              Muthuvel Karunanidhi (3 June 1924 – 7 August 2018) was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He was a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. Before entering politics he worked in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter. He has also made contributions to Tamil literature, having written stories, plays, novels, and a multiple-volume memoir. He was popularly referred to as Kalaignar, meaning artist in Tamil.

          Karunanidhi became India's first Chief Minister to hoist the national flag on August 15, 1974. Earlier, only Governors hoisted the flag on Republic Day and Independence Day. He was appointed as Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister on February 10, 1969, following the death of DMK founder C.N.Annadurai. Karunanidhi was the first man to bring a law that gives women equal right in the ancestral property, even before the law was passed by Indian government.

End of a great politician who had a great spirit!!