Vaa Mu Sethuraman, who devoted life to propagating Tamil pride, no more
Karunanidhi
, Vaa Mu Sethuraman, famous for his poems that were regularly published in party organ 'Murasoli', died due to age-related illness on Friday at his residence in Chennai.
He was 90.
His association with Karunanidhi and
DMK
was such that Murasoli published his poems regularly to instill Tamil pride in cadres. Three days after DMK launched its membership drive on July 1, ahead of the 2026 assembly poll under 'Oraniyil Tamil Nadu (Tamil Nadu in unison)' campaign, Sethuraman had penned a poem, praising the campaign, and it was published in Murasoli on July 4. It remained the last poem he penned before his demise.
Born in Aandanayagapuram in Ramanathapuram district, Sethuraman was known for his movements such as 'Tamil Munnetra Kazhagam' and 'Pannaattu Tamilunarvu Mandram' which were founded for Tamil language development both in India and outside. He was also one of the earliest sympathizers of Sri Lankan Tamils and organized a hundred-member Tamil scholars' walkathon from Chennai to Kanyakumari in 1993, covering 1,330km.
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For efforts like that, he was called 'Perungavikko'.
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He joined DMK in 1960 and his first book 'Tamil Muzhakkam' had the foreword by Karunanidhi. Interestingly, his last book was on Karunanidhi titled, 'Kalaignar Kaaviyam'. Sethuraman organized international Tamil relations conferences in Trichy, Chennai and Germany. He edited 'Tamilppani', a Tamil literary magazine.
He is survived by four sons and a daughter.
The wedding ceremonies of all his children were presided over by Karunanidhi.
"In Jan 1991, a day before the dismissal of his govt, Kalaignar came all the way to Madurai to attend my son's wedding. He could have stayed back in Chennai. But because of the friendship we shared, he attended our function. I see it more as a respect shown by him to Tamil than to our friendship," Sethuraman said in an interview to Murasoli.
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