Chennai: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has claimed that democracy is in great danger and usage of EVMs should be stopped. Also, while accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “betraying” the nation, he urged the electorate of Tamil Nadu to “vote out the Modi government at the Centre.”
“What is there in Tamil Nadu now is not Anna DMK (AIADMK). It is Modi MK. Even one vote polled for AIADMK is a vote cast for Modi,” the Andhra Pradesh CM said on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters at Anna Arivalayam — DMK headquarters here, the TDP supremo who commenced his speech in Tamil, before switching to English, said that the relationship between the Tamils and Telugus is like brothers.
Training his guns on Modi, he said “I want to appeal to Tamil Nadu voters that democracy is in danger. Narendra Modi has done so much injustice to the nation and betrayed the nation.”
He said leaders like Periyar, former chief ministers M. G. Ramachandran and Annadurai were supportive of the people when they faced difficulties.
“Modi must learn from them. Kalaignar is a leader praised by the world. Stalin is like that now. People want to see Stalin as the Chief Minister,” he said.
Referring to the farmers protest in Jantar mantar for 100 days, he asked if the PM paid any attention to the ryots’ problems. “Did he intervene in Jallikattu issue?” he asked.
On the EVMs, the CM said out of 10 populous countries, only three are using them partially. Germany one of the most advanced countries technologically started EVM in 2005 but discontinued its usage in 2009. Similarly, Netherland and Ireland also stopped it due to different concerns, he emphasised. He contended that EVMs are vulnerable, and that there is neither any auditing of EVMs today nor is there any regulator to oversee it.
Lashing out at the Centre on the Income Tax raids, he alleged the searches were only targeted against those who opposed the BJP, and sought to know if similar raids were conducted in any BJP-ruled States. “Income Tax raids were conducted only against DMK, Telugu Desam and (Karnataka Chief Minister) H D Kumaraswamy,” he said sharing the dais with DMK candidates for the Lok Sabha elections to be held on Thursday.
