Chennai: Sensing a conspiracy and blackmail against him and the DMK leadership, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan has chosen to counter the audios, purportedly having his voice released by BJP state president K Annamalai, with a video in English as well as a statement in Tamil.
Amid the talk of a cabinet reshuffle in May first week coinciding with the completion of two years in the office of the DMK government, the two audios are dominating the political discourse in Tamil Nadu. And PTR is strident in his denial and in denouncing the BJP and its state leadership. In both the audio clips, lasting 27 and 57 seconds, the person is heard accusing the ruling DMK leadership and the party's first family of incompetence but amassing a huge amount of money. His specific targets are Chief Minister MK Stalin's son and Minister, Udhayanidhi Stalin, and his son-in-law, V Sabareesan.
“I strongly and specifically deny having said to any individual personally or on the phone at any point in time what is contained in the audio clip circulated on social media since yesterday the source of which nobody accepts ownership. For, the state president of the BJP has descended to posting audio of somebody telling nobody about some others. This is the base level of his politics,” he said in the video shared on Twitter.
In the very beginning, PTR's video also contained AI-generated deep fake videos of BJP's former Delhi unit president, Manoj Tiwary as well as former US presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump as examples of how advanced AI technologies could be misused. According to him, this is the handiwork of those who could not digest the 'achievements' of the Dravidian Model government of Stalin within two years which has outperformed the BJP-led Union government.
“Certain forces are unable to digest these achievements. So, they are indulging in using advanced technologies and cheap tactics such as releasing these fabricated audios to disrupt our good work,” Dr Rajan maintained. Heaping praise on Stalin and the first family, he had this to say: “Our Hon'ble Chief Minister is not only the guiding light of Tamil Nadu, but the hope of the country. The Honb'le Sports Minister Udhayanidhi is the hope for the next generation and has received great reception from the Tamil people. Of the many who urged his elevation to the state cabinet, based on his appeal as a youth icon, I was among the foremost. His outstanding performance as a minister has surpassed all our expectations. He is also a hands-on grassroots administrator. He is making Tamil Nadu the centre of attention of the international sports world.” Then he asks, “How is it possible that I could say anything negative about such an outstanding performer?”
Sabareesan can't be left out and he has the choicest words for him as well. “From my first days in public life Thiru Sabareesan has always been my most trusted adviser, guide, and pillar of support,” PTR says adding “Even opposition parties have not laid accusations against Udhayanidhi and Sabareesan. Therefore such fabricated audios are being generated in a vain attempt to cast aspersions on them.”
Describing the audio clips as 'a desperate attempt by a blackmail gang to achieve their political ambitions by creating a rift within us (DMK)', he asserted that such cowardly attempts would never succeed. PTR hails from a family of Dravidian stalwarts. His grandfather PT Rajan was a Chief Minister of the Justice Party ministry while his father had been a minister in the Karunanidhi government.
However, some analysts have questioned his reluctance to file a libel suit instead of issuing clarifications. “While a person who posted a cartoon in social media, ridiculing PTR's budget announcement on working out the eligibility norms for Rs 1000 a month for eligible women heads of families, has been arrested and lodged in jail, why hesitate in this?” asks commentator Ramasubramanian. PTR himself, in his earlier statement, had said “were such slander to cross the threshold of maximum tolerance, I will be forced to take legal action, even though I realise that it will take months to prosecute and such action will provide further publicity to outright lies and deception.”
While Annamalai has made it clear that more videos are in stock, the BJP, to garner political mileage has approached the governor for an inquiry and the principal opposition AIADMK too has said that it would take it up with the Centre to probe the issue.
Also read: DMK Files: Annamalai comes out with second purported audio of PTR
