Celebrating the birth centenary of the man who gave the state its name, Tamil Nadu on Tuesday made a pitch for its demand for autonomy for all states, equality of all regional languages, and set free 10 prisoners serving life sentence in the Coimbatore blast case who completed a decade in jail.

Born on this day in 1909, C N Annadurai changed the fate of the Madras state, naming it Tamil Nadu. Two days after his 40th birthday, he launched the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). On Tuesday, one of the co-founder’s of the party, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi revived the demand for state autonomy. With Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee looking on, he said states should be given more powers, a demand, which he recalled, was raised by a young Mukherjee in 1970 during the DMK conference in Chennai. He told Mukherjee: “You now have the authority to give the states more power.”

Karunanidhi also urged that all regional languages should be given equal status — a demand that comes in the backdrop of reports that his son and Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri was refused permission to speak in Tamil inside the House. Explaining that the state’s demand was not anti-Hindi, Karunanidhi said all languages, including Tamil, should have their rightful place at the Centre. On the sidelines of the function, Alagiri told the media that DMK MPs have given representation to be allowed to speak in Tamil.

While the number of prisoners released on Tuesday was only 10, as opposed to 1,000 released on the same day last year, those granted freedom were convicted for their involvement in Coimbatore blast and were serving life sentence. The bomb blast, which targeted the then Home Minister L K Advani, according to the police case, had claimed 58 lives. However, of those awarded release, one was not released due to his involvement in another case.