AIADMK plays BJP's tune, calls DMK ‘divisive' over Keezhadi issue

New Indian Express

4 hours ago

CHENNAI: Signalling the aligning of the AIADMK with its recently reunited ally – the BJP – on the ongoing issue of alleged delay in publishing Keezhadi's excavation report by the Archaeological Survey of India, K Pandiarajan, who was the minister for archaeology in the previous AIADMK regime, on Friday said that archaeologist Amarnath Ramakrishna should respond to the questions raised by the ASI regarding his report.
Implying that the questions raised by the ASI had credibility, Pandiarajan, who is at present AIADMK's deputy propaganda secretary, told the media that Ramakrishna's report said the antiquity of Tamil civilisation might date from the 5th century CE to the 5th century BCE.
'In other words, he suggests it could be any year within that span of thousand years. That is what he calls a discovery. Will anyone accept such a claim?' Pandiarajan asked.
He further questioned the reason for the delay of many years in submitting the report by Ramakrishna, who carried out the first two phases of excavations in Keezhadi before he was suddenly transferred by the ASI to Assam in 2017.
Since the controversy broke out in the end of May, the principal opposition party of Tamil Nadu had largely remained silent on the issue, while the ruling DMK and its allies have been vehemently attacking the BJP for trying to suppress the antiquity of Tamil civilisation.