CHENNAI: Cooperation Minister Sellur K. Raju has demanded that the opposition leader and DMK chief M. K. Stalin come out with the real reason for backing out of holding anti-Hindi protests. He claimed that the DMK leaders would have met the same fate as that of former Union Minister P. Chidambaram had they agitated.
“Was it the Governor's (Banwarilal Purohit) assurance on the 'imposition' of Hindi or Centre's warning that had prompted the DMK president to suspend the anti-Hindi agitation? Ironically, Stalin who has been accusing the Governor of interfering in the administrative chores of the elected government, says he accepted the assurance from the Governor and decided to call off the agitation,” Mr. Raju said.
Addressing a rally organised by the AIADMK in connection with the birth anniversary of former Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai in Madurai, the Minister said Stalin walks into the Raj Bhavan and after a discussion with the Governor, he informs that agitation plans have been dropped. “What has prompted him to decide against agitating? Had he and others agitated against the Centre, then he and the rest would have met the same fate of (former Union Minister) P. Chidambaram (arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the INX media case),” Mr. Sellur Raju said.
On Wednesday, the DMK president called on the Governor, following a message from Raj Bhavan, as the DMK cadres were gearing up to organise a massive anti-Hindi agitation for September 20. Later, emerging from a 45-minute long meeting with the Governor, Stalin drove straight to his party office on Annasalai.
“The Governor stressed that Hindi will not be imposed in Tamil Nadu. We asked whether the Centre will confirm this. The Governor said he represented the Centre and he was only saying what the Centre had conveyed to him. Thus, based on what the Governor and Home Minister Amit Shah have said, we have decided to temporarily postpone the protest,” Stalin told the media.
Hours before his decision to defer the agitation, over 20 DMK youth wing cadres were taken into custody in Gudiyatham for protesting against Hindi and blackening Hindi letters.
