DMK, Congress Retort to Amit Shah

Chennai: DMK deputy general secretary A Raja and TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai came out with sharp comments against the varied allegations made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in his speech at Madurai on Sunday when he said that the days of the DMK government was numbered and that the NDA would form the next government in the State.

Addressing the media on Monday, Raja said that the BJP had no scope for setting foot in Tamil Nadu as long as the people followed the alternative Dravidian ideology, which was a counter to the saffron political thought. He said Amit Shah’s speech was marked by blatant lies and his remarks on a wide range of issues were disgusting and divisive in nature.

Referring to Shah’s comment that the DMK was afraid of defeat, Raja asked why they should be afraid of someone like Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Shah when the party was driven by a strong counter ideology, making it clear that Tamil Nadu was not like Delhi or Maharastra or Haryana.

On Shah’s predication that the NDA would form the next government in the State, Selvaperunthagai wanted to know if it would be led by the BJP or the AIADMK and said that the people of the State would not vote for the BJP as they were aware of the Union Government’s step motherly treatment to the State in many ways, including denial of funds.

Coming to the defense of Shah, Union Minister L Murugan issued a statement saying that the DMK was involved in a Rs 35,000 crore scam in TASMAC. He also alleged that the DMK was playing politics with language in the State where atrocities against scheduled caste persons were on the increase and hooch tragedies were common.

But the DMK was not much bothered about the allegations of the BJP leaders, as Raja himself said that though he could disprove Shah word by word, the people of the State would not take such things coming from BJP leaders seriously.

However, Shah’s words were unbecoming of the office that he held apart from the fact that all charges made by him were baseless, he said and lashed out at the Union Government on the delaying of the Census and on the proposed delimitation process.

Referring to Shah urging the people to attend he BJP's upcoming conference on Lord Murugan in Madurai, Raja said it was being organised with the intention of creating communal disharmony and to derive political mileage out of it.

Selvaperunthagai asked why the Murugan devotees, who would visit the six abodes of the Lord to worship him, attend the meeting organized by the BJP. On Shah expressing regret at Madurai that he was unable to speak in Tamil, the TNCC leader said if he was that concerned at Tamil would the Union Government had allotted Rs 664 crore for the development of Sanskrit in the country and given just Rs 24 crore for Tamil’s progress.

He also pointed out, denying Shah’s claim of Tamil Nadu getting a lot of funds, that in the last 7 years the Union Government collected Rs 7.38 lakh crore from the State through GST and cess but returned only 2.56 lakh crore.