Stalin slams Modi Govt returning Keezhadi excavation report, terms it ‘blatant attack on Tamil culture’

Lashing out at the Modi Government for returning the Keezhadi archaeological excavation report seeking further validation and justification, Chief Minister and ruling DMK president MK Stalin on Thursday termed it as a blatant attack on Tamil culture.

“For the BJP-led Union Government, Tamil tastes bitter and hatred for Tamils in ingrained, and that is why it is persisting in its attempts to hide and bury the pre-eminent antiquity and uniqueness of Tamil civilisation,” he said in an epistle to the party cadre, adding “this is a blatant attack on Tamil civilisation.”

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“While keeping aloft the imaginary Saraswati civilisation without an iota of any evidence, the BJP is bent upon destroying the Dravidian cultural identity of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Till now, the Saraswati civilization has not been proven with scientific evidence. But even though the artefacts excavated at Keezhadi, the civilizational identity of the Tamils, have been subjected to scientific scrutiny of global standards and proved, the BJP-led Modi government is not ready to accept them. It betrays the height of hatred that the party harbours against the Tamils,” said the letter, which credited Wednesday’s protests by the DMK Students’ Wing in Madurai and that of the Dravidar Kazhagam in Chennai to condemn the Union Government for discrediting the Keezhadi findings.

Asserting that Keezhadi is akin to the mother’s lap for the Tamils, Stalin said Keezhadi excavation has conclusively revealed that the Vaigai river civilisation of the Tamils dates back to BCE 2500 to BCE 3000. “This is not a mere ideological notion, but based on data obtained by subjecting them to chemical testing and carbon dating at top laboratories of the world at Pune, Bengaluru, Florida in the USA, and Italy. Based on these solid scientific proofs, archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishna submitted the 982-page final report in 2023,” he pointed out. “Now, despite such an amount of authentic, scientifically proven data, instead of releasing the findings, the Modi government has returned the report after a delay of two years, seeking further justification and validation. This is a blatant attack on Tamil civilization,” he charged.

Further, the Chief Minister drew attention to the fact that the age of Tamil civilization, dating back to BCE 5300, has been proved with the scientifically-backed publication of ‘Antiquity of Iron’. This followed the discovery of iron weapons (swords and knives) implements at Sivagalai and other places, which revealed that the Iron Age commenced in the Tamil region rather than elsewhere. “Tamil Nadu is in India, and Tamil is a language recognised in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, and Tamils are Indian citizens. Yet, the BJP dispensation, including the Prime Minister, has not even tweeted on the results of the antiquity of iron being the pride of Tamil civilization.

Even the BJP functionaries in Tamil Nadu are betraying the Tamils by pledging to their party leadership their civilizational and linguistic affinity,” he said, and blamed the principal opposition AIADMK for terming the Keezhadi civilization ‘Bharat Civilization’.