Tamil poet Subramaniya Bharathiyar in saffron turban, instead of white in Tamil textbooks sparks controversy

Hindi imposition yesterday and another new issue today, controversy erupts after revolutionary Tamil poet Subramaniya Bharathiyar spotted with a saffron turban instead of his famous white turban in 12th standard Tamil textbook cover.

When you generally ask who Bharathiyar is to a middle school kid, he/she will explain Subramaniya Bharathiyar as a Tamil poet with a white turban and a black coat with sharp eyes. That has been the image of the revolutionary poet Subramaniya Bharathiyar who wrote about equality and social justice even during the British colonial age. He also fueled the freedom fight in Tamil Nadu by his thoughts and was appreciated by Mahatma Gandhi for his powerful writings. 

But the new Tamil textbook which was introduced by the Tamil Nadu textbook corporation has given a saffron hue to the turban of Mahakavi Bharathiyar which sparked this controversy.

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As soon as this new design came out, former Education Minister during the DMK regime Thangam Thennarasu said 'This is an attempt to subconsciously give students a different image of Bharathiyar' 

ADMK spokes person Kovai Sathyan says 'DMK wanted to keep the anti-BJP and ADMK momentum alive & hence they wanted to politicize every issue and wanted to depict that anything done by BJP/ADMK is to deter the people of Tamil Nadu'

BJP spokesperson Narayana Tirupathi says that, "No one will have an intention to give saffron shade to the great poet and freedom fighter Bharathiyar, it should've been an unintentional mistake of the designer and I think the old image of Bharathiyar should stay as it is, he doesn't need a new design with such colours" 

The issue is also the hot topic in social media from the morning where people have been discussing.

However, the artist who designed the textbook cover page has said that he didn't want to give any due to the poet, but he just wanted to bring the national flag and tricolour in the face of Poet Bharathiyar.

However, the textbook cannot undergo any change for the current academic year as its already been printed in lakhs of numbers.

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