Thiagarajan has said that he had reached out to the US government for vaccines to India and allocation to Tamil Nadu through the offices of Jackson and you. Please comment on this.

As I have said earlier, Thiagarajan was one of the three leaders from India to have the foresight to reach out to Jackson along with Samant and former Union Minister and Member of Parliament, K.J. Alphons. Thiagarajan has had his higher education in prestigious institutions in the US and was following the US media closely and seized upon the opportunity to present India’s case very eloquently.

He also drew a parallel to the Civil Rights movement in the US to the Dravidian Movement in South India. Jackson was emotionally moved by PTR’s presentation and he immediately sent a video message to people of India, “Help is on its way. Let not your spirit be broken, Hold on, Dawn of the morning is coming. We will conquer this disease. Keep hope alive. God bless you all. Love you all.”

Taking forward this success, will you be playing a significant role in the India-US relationship?

I will do all that I can for my motherland to further strengthen the Indo-US relations. I take it as a bounden duty to ensure that India’s name is not tarnished by any section of the community by their false propaganda funneled by vested interests.