Chennai: BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan has lashed out at MDMK chief Vaiko for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's helicopter travel and said his travel plans across the country were official and not like Vaiko's illegal boat trip to Sri Lanka.
Referring to his "famous" "illegal" boat trip to Sri Lanka in February 1989, she said Vaiko then slipped into the island nation. "Was it not cowardice on Vaiko's part then?" Dr. Tamilisai asked flaying the MDMK chief and reminded him that, "our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji dared to land in Pakistan."
She justified the helicopter visits of the PM, ahead of Mr. Modi's visit to the city to inaugurate the DefExpo 2018 at Thiruvidanthai on the East Coast Road near here on Thursday. "Protocol is followed for the PM's visits," she stressed.
On the DefExpo, the BJP chief said this mega event is a great opportunity for TN to ensure industrial growth and provide jobs for the youth. "It is unfortunate that the opposition parties are planning to show black flags at the PM. This is condemnable," Dr. Tamilisai added.
Asserting that there is no justification in staging violent protests that disrupt normal life or cause hardship to the people, the BJP state president claimed that protests could only bring out one's feelings but not fetch Cauvery water. "There is no doubt that Cauvery should reach TN. There will be a favourable solution in a month's time," she said and slammed the opposition parties and fringe elements that have been disrupting normal life in TN through agitations.
"How do you expect the Cauvery issue to be solved overnight when successive governments failed to take action to resolve this decades-old problem. The violent agitations only show that your feelings change with the political conditions," she said on Wednesday.
