DMK leader RS Bharathi has dismissed Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi's accusations that he offended Nagas and said he did not make any comment critical of the northeastern people, after Ravi and the BJP on Sunday criticised Bharathi for allegedly 'insulting' the Naga people after he referred to them as 'dog eaters,'. According to PTI, Bharathi said Ravi could not understand the language and asserted that nothing he said was critical of the people of Nagaland
Governor Ravi had earlier called the remark scurrilous and unacceptable.
Speaking to reporters, Bharathi only Ravi deserved a comment denouncing him and certainly not the people of Nagaland, reported PTI. Earlier, at a DMK event, Bharathi made a passing reference to the eating habits of the people of Nagaland while criticising Ravi and said this was an 'example'.
Notably, the Tamil Nadu Governor has previously served as the Governor of Nagaland and this was the reference the DMK leader took to make the alleged comment.
Bharathi had reportedly said that when the people of Nagaland, who eat dog meat, with so much sense of dignity, chased Ravi and made him run away from that state, the Tamil people's sense of dignity, who eat rice with salt, should not be forgotten, the news agency quoted him as saying.
A former Rajya Sabha MP, Bharathi is also the DMK's organisation secretary and he made the remarks at a party event held to mark the centenary of late party patriarch M Karunanidhi.
The Governor reacted: "Nagas are brave, honest and dignified people. Thiru R S Bharathi a senior DMK leader publicly insulting them as ‘Dog eaters’ is scurrilous and unacceptable. I urge Mr Bharathi not to hurt a community of which the whole of India is proud."