By Senior DMK leader and former Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu on Tuesday (September 1, 2026) told the Tamil Nadu Assembly there was no truth in the allegation that the DMK government led by late Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had denied a burial site on the sands of the Marina for Congress leader K. Kamaraj and refused permission to construct a memorial.
Responding to Congress Legislative Party leader Tharahai Cuthbert, who made the allegation on Monday (August 31), Mr. Thennarasu recalled the speeches of former Congress leaders Rajaram Naidu and Pazha Nedumaran, saying the demand for allotting a place for Kamaraj’s burial was never raised by the Congress.
Citing extensively from a speech by Rajaram Naidu in the Legislative Council, Mr. Thennarasu said the original plan was to keep Kamaraj’s body at the Teynampet Congress ground, cremate him there and construct a memorial. Rajaram Naidu had said the Congress had not expected any government honours.
“The Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues looked as if they had lost one of their brothers and did not consider it the death of a leader of another political party,” Mr. Thennarasu recalled Rajaram Naidu as saying.
According to Rajaram Naidu, he and other Congress leaders were wondering how to approach the government to request that Kamaraj’s body be kept at Rajaji Hall so that the public could pay their respects. “It was then that the Chief Minister (M. Karunanidhi) entered Kamaraj’s residence and told us that the body should be shifted to Rajaji Hall, as the crowd at the residence could not be controlled. We wondered how he had read our minds,” Mr. Thennarasu quoted Rajaram Naidu as saying in the Council.
Rajaram Naidu had also said that he and the Congress leaders did not know how to express their gratitude to the Chief Minister, who took them to the Gandhi Memorial and, with the help of car headlights, cleared bushes and trees throughout the night to make the place ready for the burial.
Mr. Thennarasu said Beach Road was named after Kamaraj and when the AIADMK government led by M.G. Ramachandran wanted to install Kamaraj’s portrait in the Assembly, Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) had written the caption, “Hard work elevates.”
Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar said the incidents remained a testimony to a period when leaders buried their political differences and showed love and respect for one another.
Ms. Cuthbert said she had not denied the role played by the DMK government, but had only alleged that permission to bury Kamaraj on the Marina had been denied. “I will produce evidence tomorrow,” she said.
Published – September 01, 2026 04:51 pm IST