Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay added a surprise touch to his Independence Day speech by switching to English at the end of his address.
Speaking from the ramparts of Fort St George, Vijay delivered most of his speech in Tamil. But before concluding, he repeated some of the key points in English for the benefit of people who may not follow Tamil.
The move immediately attracted attention, as Vijay became only the second Chief Minister of the state to address the gathering in English as part of an Independence Day speech.
Among the points he chose to highlight in English was his government’s anti-corruption agenda.
Vijay stressed that his administration wants to eliminate corruption and appealed to the public to adopt a zero-tolerance approach towards corrupt practices.
His decision to repeat the key message in English appeared to be aimed at taking his governance pitch beyond the Tamil-speaking audience.
The anti-corruption message has been one of the major themes of Vijay’s early days in office, and by underlining it in English on Independence Day, the Chief Minister ensured that the message received wider attention.
For many watching the event, the language switch became one of the unexpected talking points of Vijay’s first Independence Day address as Chief Minister.
