India, Aug. 18 -- Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay offered an immediate apology in the Assembly on Monday after a minister referred to former CM M Karunanidhi directly by name, omitting the traditional honorifics.

State Forest Minister RV Ranjith Kumar's remarks on the DMK stalwart's name without affixing "Kalaignar" (scholar), as is the tradition in addressing him in the Assembly, drew spontaneous protest by the opposition DMK.

The CM intervened to defuse opposition protest over the breach of decorum, conceding that addressing the late leader in such a manner was wrong and offered an explicit apology on his minister's behalf. "I apologise on his behalf," Vijay said in the Assembly.

The trouble began when Ranjith Kumar, during ...