Vice President CP Radhakrishnan on Tuesday (December 31, 2025) said that if someone bows at the feet of Mother India, it does not make him ‘anti-Tamil’. He was speaking at the concluding ceremony of Kashi Tamil Sangamam 4.0 here, in which he called for national unity in the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ while emphasizing on the unbreakable cultural bond between Kashi and Tamil Nadu.
Radhakrishnan said, ‘Every day we bow down at the feet of this holy Mother India and say, may this nation prosper. Does this make us anti-Tamil? No. If the nation is one eye and the other eye is our mother tongue Tamil, then who can separate them?’
He said that Tamil warriors from Pandia Nadu were assisting in the restoration of the Kasi temple against the destruction caused by the Mughals. The Vice President also shared a recent example to show how the Prime Minister stands with the Tamils. He said that with the help of the state government, Nattukottai Chettiars recovered the encroached land worth Rs 300 crore of their rest house in Kashi in just 48 hours.
Radhakrishnan said, ‘People of our Nattukottai Chettiar community met the Prime Minister, who asked them to meet the Chief Minister. The Chief Minister took all the information. When he showed all the documents, the officials completely accepted that the land belonged to him. The land was taken back in just 48 hours… Today it stands as a grand multi-storey rest house.
The fourth edition of Kasi Tamil Sangamam (KTS 4.0), organized by the Education Ministry in Varanasi from December 2 to 15, held a symbolic conclusion in Rameshwaram, the main theme of which was ‘Tamil Karakalam’ (Let’s Learn Tamil). Its objective was to promote linguistic exchange and shared heritage between North and South India.
In this program, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said that Tamil civilization is an integral part of the broader civilizational foundation of India, and it goes beyond regional boundaries. The Union Minister said, ‘Tamil civilization is not regional. This is the foundation of Indian civilization. This is the basic mantra of Kashi Tamil Sangam 4.0, because it deepens the civilizational education of India. Tamil language is not limited to Tamil Nadu only, but is open to everyone in India.
State Governor RN Ravi, while giving his entire speech in Tamil, said that thousands of students across India are learning Tamil this year. The Governor said, ‘300 Hindi speaking students from Kashi and Uttar Pradesh have come here to learn Tamil. They know that Tamil is an ancient language, a powerful language, a very beautiful language.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tamil Nadu unit president Nainar Nagendran said Tamilians should be grateful to a Prime Minister like Modi who insists that students in Uttar Pradesh should learn Tamil.
According to him, the structure, grammar and culture of the Tamil language have ensured its survival for more than 5,000 years. Nagendran said, ‘Now Prime Minister Modi continues to cherish and celebrate our Tamil language. He says that Tamil can be taught in schools of Uttar Pradesh.
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When after taking a dip in the river Ganga of Kashi, Vice President C.P. Radhakrishnan became vegetarian!