Council defends award ceremony for Tamil Nadu poet
Compliled by C.ARUNO,HO JIA WEN and R.ARAVINTHAN

THE Council of Malaysian Tamil Organisations has hit out at those who criticised a planned award ceremony for Tamil Nadu poet and songwriter Vairamuthu, Makkal Osai reported.

Vairamuthu is famed for his works in Tamil cinema. He is also a leading Tamil writer with numerous awards including the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian award.

As such, he is being welcomed as a Tamil poet and literary figure, council secretary-general Dr Kumaran Velu Ramasamy explained.

It was thus unwise for some organisations to call for a ban on the award function, he said, referring to critics who sought to portray him in a negative light.

The Tamil poet, he said, had in fact visited the country many times.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a, it denotes a separate news item.
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THE Council of Malaysian Tamil Organisations has hit out at those who criticised a planned award ceremony for Tamil Nadu poet and songwriter Vairamuthu, Makkal Osai reported.