Modi pays tributes to Karunanidhi
Chennai, Aug 8 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday paid homage to the late DMK President M. Karunanidhi after laying a wreath on the body that was lying in state at Rajaji Hall here.
Arriving here by a special flight, Modi reached the government estate and paid his respects to the late former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.
After going around the casket in which the body was wrapped in the tri-color, the Prime Minister patted M.K. Stalin, Karunanidhi's son and political heir, and his daughter Kanimozhi, MP, and comforted them with words of solace.
After exchanging a few words with them, Modi also comforted other family members and left the place.
Modi, in November last year, visited the Gopalapuram residence of Karunanidhi and urged him to come to the Prime Minister's official residence in Delhi for medical care if he wanted.
Though the Prime Minister's visit was acknowledged as a political nicety in deference to the senior-most political leader of the country, observers also feel it could send signals to the DMK ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in the state where uncertainty clouds political scene.
The Prime Minister was accompanied by Tamil Nadu Governor Banwari Lal Purohit, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan and state BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan. Sitharaman also comforted Stalin and Kanimozhi.
Modi also greeted with folded hands the crowd of mourners who shouted to acknowledge his atrrival. Stalin and other DMK leader saw him off.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
