Madurai :

For I Mayandi Bharathi, a veteran freedom fighter, one of the issues that is constantly running in his mind is the large amounts of black money stashed in various banks abroad.

Now, the 97-year-old freedom fighter wants the government to take concrete steps to bring back the money. Not only this, one of his other demands is to execute the Ganga-Cauvery rivers interlinking for the welfare of the farmers.

Bharathi said this while attending the 68th Independence Day celebrations held in the AR ground on Friday.

Bharathi himself has spent 13 years in various jails including Madurai, Trichy, Vellore, Coimbatore, Chennai and Palayamkottai along with many other veteran freedom fighters.

Besides being a freedom fighter, Bharathi has also been a journalist for nearly 50 years and has served in various capacities for different publications.

On Friday, he was seated in the row meant for freedom fighters and he had brought along his recent publication of his second edition of Tamil book “Porukku Thayar” (Ready for war). “He is very much interested in releasing books. So far, he has released 20 books,” said his assistant Manikandan.

When asked about today’s scenario, Bharathi said the country has developed in many fields.

“As far as the present Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approach towards the neighbouring nations, he is doing well. At the same time, he should focus on domestic issues,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai /L. Saravanan, TNN / August 17th, 2014