Chennai: Countering Union Home Minister Amit Shah's litany of charges against the DMK and his government, Chief Minister MK Stalin vented his ire at the Centre and the BJP terming the state-wide roadshow 'En Mann En Makkal' (My Land My People) as a programme to atone for the sins of the 2002 Gujarat pogrom and the rampaging civil war in Manipur at present.
Stalin, addressing the newly appointed DMK Youth Wing functionaries from across the state in Chennai said, “It is not padayatra but 'paava yatra' (yatra for atonement). An atonement for the sins committed in Gujarat in 2002 and in Manipur now. I am asking the Union Home Minister whether he could go and conduct a peace yatra in Manipur, which has been burning for the past two months and more. No, he couldn't.”
Amit Shah, flagging off the yatra in the pilgrim town of Rameswaram said, “Stalin should be ashamed for keeping a minister in his cabinet even after the Enforcement Directorate had arrested him in a corruption case. Stalin is apprehensive of the minister revealing all secrets if his resignation was accepted. That is the reason why he is still keeping him in the cabinet” The BJP stalwart further reiterated the BJP's charge that the DMK was corrupt and so was the Congress and other constituents of the opposition alliance, INDIA. Furthermore, he lambasted them for being dynastic and working for the promotion of their families rather than the development of the country.
In his rebuttal, Stalin said “You are asking about Senthil Balaji. But, all those charged with serious crimes are ministers in the Modi cabinet. Does Amit Shah have the courage to question Modi about this? I can tell you more about this, but the case is pending before the apex court. It is an open secret that the BJP is using the Enforcement Directorate as a washing machine to cleanse those political rivals facing corruption on their saffron embrace. This BJP is practising this ugly politics.”
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“The very name 'INDIA' rattles some people, they are unnerved. The Prime Minister could not digest the success of the Patna meet and the subsequent Bengaluru conclave. Whether it is Madhya Pradesh or the Andamans, he singles out the DMK accusing it of perpetuating dynastic politics. But, this Dravidian model of governance is not a family rule or that of mine, but a government pursuing the policies of a race keeping them intact for centuries. It is a government for eight crore families of Tamil Nadu. This government is implementing the policies and objectives for which the Dravidian movement was founded a century ago. And now, we are taking it to the whole nation for which the INDIA alliance has been formed.”
Just because the BJP is in power at the Centre, Stalin said the saffron party is creating an image as though it is invincible and can't be defeated. “Elections are on the horizon and Amit Shah has come to Tamil Nadu, not for laying the foundation for any new project or to inaugurate the much-hyped AIIMS Hospital, which is yet to be constructed though announced years back, but for flagging off a yatra. Many more Union Ministers will frequent the state.” On Shah's criticism of dynastic politics in the DMK, the Chief Minister had this to say, “Say something new. This has been countered many times. Is there no dynast in BJP? Will they quit politics tomorrow? It will take an hour to list all those hereditary heirs in the BJP in each state.”
Puncturing the BJP's claim to be the benefactors of the Sri Lankan Tamils, Stalin reminded that it was Modi who had invited the then Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse, accused of war crimes, for his swearing-in in 2014. Despite strong protests from Tamil Nadu leaders cutting across party lines, he was invited and this being the track record of the BJP, it has no moral right to talk about the Lankan Tamils, he added. Listing the instances of attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen and their arrest and the impounding of their boats, the Chief Minister asked whether Shah was not aware of the continuing highhandedness of the island nation's navy. To the Youth Wing functionaries, he said, “The BJP's destructive run is nearing its end in a few months. Its attempts to destroy democracy, social justice, secularism, and the Constitution will come to a close. Our campaign slogan is Vote for India to save India”.
