The Tamil Nadu Government on Tuesday decided to put off to June-July next year the ninth World Tamil Conference originally scheduled to be held in Coimbatore from Jan 21 to 24.
The decision was taken at a high level meeting held at the Centre of Excellence for Classical Tamil here, presided over by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and attended by Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin and Finance Minister K Anbazhagan, besides Tamil scholars.
An official release said that the decision to postpone the conference to the end of June or the first week of July was taken following representations from Tamil scholars the world over that they needed more time to prepare research papers and finalise their travel plans.
The decision to hold the conference has provoked a controvesy with the opposition AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha questioning Mr Karunanidhi's locus standi to hold such a meeting after having remained a silent spectator to the "repression of Malaysian and Sri Lankan Tamils" and other opposition parties questioning the need for such a conference when the Tamils are in distress.
Ms Jayalalitha has also raised procedural issues by pointing out that the authority to hold such a conference is only the International Association of Tamil Research (ITAR)and asked whether Mr Karunanidhi has got its approval. The State Government can only host the conference and that was what MGR and she did for the earlier conferences held when they were Chief Ministers, she has pointed out.
Asian Tribune -
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