DMK MLA Markandeyan Targets CM Vijay Again Despite Bail Undertaking
Referring to Vijay’s alleged gesture indicating that he would break the jaw of DMK leader Stalin, Markandeyan questioned why no complaint had been lodged against the Chief Minister
THOOTHUKUDI: Vilathikulam DMK MLA Markandayan has again made disparaging remarks against Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, apparently breaching the undertaking given by him before the Madras high court while securing conditional bail in a case over the alleged derogatory remarks he made against the Chief Minister.
Markandeyan was arrested on July 20 and remained in judicial custody for about two weeks before the high court granted him conditional bail on August 3. The court had directed him to give an undertaking that he would not make such remarks against Vijay in future.
However, addressing the DMK protest against Vijay in Thoothukudi on Saturday, Markandayan referred to the Chief Minister in a disrespectful singular and said Vijay would “go to jail one day” and that the DMK would ensure it happened.
Describing Vijay as an “actor who is cheating the people”, Markandeyan alleged that he had no concrete plans to address the problems confronting Tamil Nadu and that “reels” appeared to be his only concern. He questioned the Chief Minister’s visit to London to attract investments when agriculture and the livelihood of farmers and fishermen were at stake.
The MLA also questioned Vijay’s performance in the Assembly, saying the Leader of the Opposition had elaborately spoken during the demands for grants about the increasing number of lock-up deaths, crimes against women and children, the deterioration of general law and order and poor policing, but the Chief Minister, in-charge of the police department, had not responded to the issues raised by the Opposition leader, but diverted the issues by making punch dialogues and raising irrelevant issues.
He also criticised Vijay for alleging that DMK functionaries were making derogatory remarks against women, adding that it was his party’s leaders, Karunanidhi and M.K.Stalin as chief ministers of the state, who implemented schemes to help women attain a higher position in Tamil Nadu’s social transformation.
Markandayan also made personal remarks over the presence of actor Trisha and her mother at the Independence Day function. Questioning their presence at the function where, he said, the Chief Minister’s family should have been seated, he called Joseph Vijay a “disgraceful Chief Minister” and accused him of being preoccupied with the actor instead of governance.
Referring to Vijay’s alleged gesture indicating that he would break the jaw of DMK leader Stalin, Markandeyan questioned why no complaint had been lodged against the Chief Minister. While he had faced action for making a similar remark, no action appeared to have been taken against Vijay, he charged.
The latest remarks by Markandayan come despite the undertaking given by him before the court and amid an increasingly bitter political confrontation between the DMK and Vijay’s Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam.