Click to play videoChennai: Anything for the Tamil cause seems to be the latest mantra of the Chennai Corporation as it announced golden rings for all those who give Tamil names to their newborns. And what better day than Chief Minister Karunanidhi's birthday.
The news came as a pleasant surprise to many like Bharathi Rani who delivered a baby girl on Wednesday morning.
"This is something very unexpected. Many poor people will be benefited by this. I've selected the name Kanimozhi, the Chief Minister's daughter's name because she's a very progressive and educated woman," said Bharathi Rani.
The Chennai Corporation has ensured that the gold rings are given only to those who give their children authentic Tamil names.
Chennai Corporation Mayor, M Subramanian said, "We have formed a committee comprising of Tamil teachers to verify if the baby's name is really in Tamil and only those names certified by the teachers to be in pure Tamil will be given the gold rings."
All children who are born in Corporation hospitals Wednesday morning onwards, bearing Tamil names will benefit from the scheme, irrespective of their economic backgrounds. The Corporation says the move is only meant to promote Tamil language.
M Subramanian said, "Generally in Andhra Pradesh or Kerala, no one actually has to tell people to name their children in Telugu or Malayalam, but in Tamil Nadu it's not like that. As the Chief Minister is a great patron of the Tamil language, we have decided to implement this scheme on his birthday."
First it was Tamil titles for Tamil films, then Tamil made the official language in courts and now Tamil names for Tamil children. The question is whether this is just a way of promoting the language or just another instance of language chauvinism?
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