Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin vouched for the 'Dravidian Model' in Tamil Nadu which, he said, as the beacon of good governance ensured social justice while the Gujarat model, which has been hyped by Narendra Modi since the time of his tenure as Gujarat CM, speaks of only tall claims with no ground reality.
On Thursday, he announced the launch of a podcast titled “Speaking for India”. Through the medium, he spoke about how the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has destroyed the country and how egalitarian and harmonious it would look.
At the same time, he sought to present himself as a fulcrum of the INDIA alliance's unity efforts to take on the might of the BJP in the 2024 Lok Saba polls. He presented his party DMK as the 'vanguard' of India's diversity, federalism, and democracy has been threatened, DMK has always been the vanguard, standing at the frontline. He evoked a sort of Dravidian pride and the ambition of Dravidian people to rid the country of BJP's 'misrule.'
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"You should take the DMK as the spearhead of the opposition to the unitary nature...proclaimed Perarignar Anna in the Council of States. This was echoed by the leader of Tamil people, Kalaignar, who not only proclaimed that DMK must operate as a party from Tamil Nadu that will always speak for India, but also brought in structural and systemic changes to this order," Stalin said.
He spoke about his ambition loud and clear. "DMK has made Prime Ministers and Presidents. Now, there is another duty of historical importance that has come our way. More than deciding who should come to power, the 2024 Election is about who should not come to power," he added.
In his podcast, Stalin launched a barrage of attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his policies, which Stalin alleged, were meant to shower benefit on chosen few.
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"The Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to damage the basic structure of India and destroy the sense of unity that Indians have cherished and protected for so long. The party, which came to power in 2014, has failed to fulfil its pre-election promises, especially with regard to the people's welfare schemes," the DMK leader said.
He encountered the claim of the Narendra Modi-led government's welfare pledge picking up holes in its key promises: the return of black money deposited in foreign countries, giving Rs 15 lakhs to every Indian, guaranteed employment to two crore people every single year, the promise of doubling farmers' income and house for every Indian.
Stalin also raised doubt over Modi's pledge to make India a 5 trillion-dollar economy. "There were many other yarns that were spun that just remained tall tales. It is soon going to be ten years of the BJP governance, and none of those promises have been fulfilled. The Narendra Modi model, which came to power lying about the Gujarat Model, is now going to end with no significant model to call their own. It has become a rudderless model, and there are no tall claims about the once-famous Gujarat model either, especially after we listed the achievements of the Dravidian Model in Tamil Nadu with statistical proofs," Stalin pointed out.
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He expressed his dismay over the fact that the country's strong public sector is being "dismantled and destroyed by the Modi government." He alleged misuse of power to transfer the public sector to the 'government's corporate friends.'
He cited instances to substantiate his claim. "The welfare of the entire country has been reduced to the welfare of a few. Government-owned Air India has now been privatised. Airports and ports all over India are going into the hands of private organisations," he said.
The Narendra Modi government's alleged failure to double the income of farmers and no "betterment of the living standards of the poor and downtrodden" became subjects of Stalin's attack.
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He also targeted the BJP-led government for fueling 'communal hatred'. "In 2002, BJP sowed the seeds of violence and hatred in the state of Gujarat. In 2023, the sectarian fire ignited in the northeastern state of Manipur saw the state burn. In Haryana, the fire of religious fanaticism is claiming lives and property of innocent people," he added.
Stalin cautioned, "If we don't put an end to this right now, no one can save India and Indians." He raised a banner of revolt against the BJP-led government saying the GST has taken away the financial rights of the states.
"Tamil Nadu has lost its right to financial autonomy. Tamil Nadu gives huge amounts of funds annually to the Union Government through taxes. At the same time, for every rupee paid as tax revenue to the Union Government, only 29 paise was returned to the state," he said.
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