Chennai (Tamil Nadu) : It was back to governance after a war of words. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who was engaged in a wordy due with Tamil Nadu Sports Minister and DMK Youth Wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin besides faulting Chief Minister MK Stalin for taking part in the opposition INDIA bloc conclave in the national capital rather than rushing to the flood-hit four southern districts, visited the region. Her visit comes close on the heels of a Central team that had earlier assessed the damage.
Tamil Nadu's demand for more financial assistance, considering the calamitous proportion of the deluge in the southern region, turned into a heated verbal duel between Sitharaman and Udhayanidhi. The Finance Minister's remark that the Centre is not an ATM drew an instant counter from Udhayanidhi, son of the Chief Minister, who said what is being asked is not from their 'father's property' but 'a rightful share of the taxes the people had paid'. At this, Sitharaman reminded the young minister that he is the grandson of Karunanidhi, a literary giant and an eminent Tamil scholar' and his language should be befitting of his elected office.
At the press conference in Delhi, she also lambasted Stalin for prioritising the INDIA bloc meeting over visiting the rain and flood-hit districts of Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, and Kanniyakumari. On his part, Stalin had used his Delhi visit to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for Central relief and declare the deluge as a national disaster. The Finance Minister's stand that even the 2004 tsunami had not been declared a national calamity had invited widespread criticism from various quarters. It was pointed out that the National Disaster Management Policy was framed and the Disaster Management Act too came only in 2005.
