Hold Alagiri accountable to voters: Jaya

Chennai
Nov. 28: AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa on Saturday said Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers M.K. Alagiri is answerable to voters for abstaining from Parliament and failing to answer questions relating to his ministry.
In a statement here, she said reports that Alagiri was not available in Parliament to reply to questions relating to his department were “most distressing”.
“The reason given by him for his absence only revealed his irreverence to the responsible office he holds,” she said, asking Mr Alagiri to tell the nation what that personal function was and in what way that was more important than attending to his Parliamentary duties.
“Lakhs of people had purportedly cast their votes in his favour not for attending functions but to discharge his functions as a Parliamentarian and Union minister. He is answerable to them if he had genuinely been voted by them. He is also reported to have queried ‘what is the big question they have asked?’ This is an indication of his irreverence for the institution of Parliament and the Opposition,” she said.
Stating that the incident should not be viewed in isolation, Ms Jayalalithaa said, “It should be considered in the larger context of his continued absence from Parliament whenever questions relating to his ministry are taken up. One reason being touted is the inability of Alagiri to transact in Hindi or English, which are recognised as the official languages in Parliament.”
She charged chief minister and Mr Alagiri’s father M. Karunanidhi of not being concerned about the ‘secondary status’ that Tamil language enjoys in Parliament. Mr Alagiri has been insisting that he be allowed to speak in Tamil in Parliament, as he is not fluent in either English or Hindi, the two languages used in Parliament.