Chennai: Questioning Defence minister Nirmala Sitaraman’s silence over providing army’s air ambulance for shifting the ailing brother of Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam from Madurai to Chennai, AMMK leader T. T. V. Dhinakaran sought to know why special importance was accorded to an individual.
“The BJP leaders and even the union ministers talk as though they are like ‘Mr Clean’ and say all others are corrupt. They speak as if they are from Gandhi’s family or Harischandra’s descendents. The Defence Minister should explain why the ambulance was provided to an individual,” Mr. Dhinakaran said on Thursday.
“People are watching (the developments). They can’t brand the Tamils as fools,” he said and added that if she had really provided the ambulance, then it indicates that the BJP is trying to gain a foothold in Tamil Nadu.
“If this is true then the BJP is attempting to project Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman as the chief ministerial candidate in Tamil Nadu,” he said. Meanwhile, speaking on the controversy surrounding the use of a military helicopter to airlift Mr. Panneerselvam's brother recently, actor Kamal Haasan said late Chief Minister M G Ramachandran had flown in a private carrier for his medical treatment. “MGR was flown in a private aircraft even when he was battling for life,” Haasan said in an apparent reference to the former's US visit for medical treatment in early 1980s.
On Wednesday DMK working president M K Stalin had demanded the resignation of Defence Minister and Mr. Panneerselvam following the controversy. Mr. Panneerselvam had earlier said his New Delhi visit on Tuesday was only to thank Sitharaman for arranging a military air ambulance to shift his brother to Chennai from Madurai.
Actress and Congress national spokesperson Khushbu said Mr. Panneerselvam owed an explanation on his cryptic “ethaiyum thangum edhayam vendum” remark after failing to meet the defence minister.
