CHENNAI: Never before in Tamil Nadu politics has a foreign tour by a Chief Minister taken such controversial hues as the present trip by the incumbent Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami, who began the first leg of his three-nation foreign tour as he landed in London on Thursday to seek more FDI, industrial and institutional collaborations for the State.
Even a day after Mr. Palaniswami sought to square up with the Opposition leader and DMK chief M K Stalin's jibes against the former's foreign tour, taunting him what fresh investments would he bring after two Global Investors Meet (GIM) in Chennai were more window-dressing with numbers, today it was the turn of AIADMK senior and Fisheries minister D Jayakumar to rubbish Stalin's remarks.
Mr. Stalin had said that he had travelled abroad, particularly to Japan, as Deputy Chief Minister during the previous DMK regime, to tie-up key foreign external assistance for the prestigious Chennai Metrorail project and for the Hogenakkal combined water supply project in Dharmapuri district.
But Mr. Palaniswami, before taking off from here, countered he was only travelling abroad now, on invitations from industry captains during GIM-II that he personally come over to see their various facilities abroad before deciding what was best suited for Tamil Nadu. But “Mr. Stalin was making frequent overseas trips, what is the personal reason,” Mr. Palaniswami had counter-posed in a bid to quell the flames from Stalin's initial posers.
Shoring up Mr. Palaniswami's efforts, his senior Cabinet colleague, Mr. D. Jayakumar today asserted that the Chief Minister's trip was only taking forward the eco-system for FDI, firmly established by their predecessor Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa. 'Amma' had set the entire country wondering when American global car maker Ford decided to put up its first plant near Chennai in early 1990s'. Subsequently, there was a flood of foreign investments into Tamil Nadu.
Mr. Jayakumar pointed out that Ms. Jayalalithaa had told the Assembly in August 2016 that following GIM-I, fresh manufacturing and related activities to the tune of Rs.87,000 crore was under various stages of implementation. And during the GIM-11 earlier this year, under Edappadi Palaniswami's stewardship, MoUs' to the extent of Rs. three lakh crore had been signed, Jayakumar pointed out.
The Fisheries minister wondered whether Mr. Stalin was aware of these basic facts are not. They included how Tamil Nadu was among the leading states in the country in terms of industrial workforce employed and number of factories. The State had one of the highest per capita consumption of electricity, besides a vast network of technical training institutions and a large, qualified skilled workforce. These are all indicators of the high level of industrialization in Tamil Nadu.
Explaining the rationale of Mr. Palaniswami's visit now, to take advantage of the emerging global trends in industrialization - when several American companies were leaving China, and UK on the verge of leaving the European Union and so on-, Mr. Jayakumar said the Chief Minister's FDI drive was to make the best use of these trends in a bid to bring more investments and industrial opportunities to Tamil Nadu.
As an Opposition leader, Mr. Stalin should be able to appreciate these things and he should be “patient and keep quiet until the real thing happens”, Mr. Jayakumar said, taking a dig at the DMK leader. To again present a spectacle of coming out of the Assembly with his party MLAs' in desperation, and with some tearing their shirts will not behove the status of the Opposition leader, Mr. Jayakumar added. Mr. Stalin himself had as Chennai Mayor, gone abroad without informing the Centre, Mr. Jayakumar alleged.
Mr. Stalin also faced some barbs from within his own allies, with the suspended Congress South Chennai district bigwig Mr. Karate Thyagarajan, reminded him of a trip he made to Bangkok in Thailand in 2007 with his friend when Stalin was Local Administration minister, without informing the Central government. That had created a controversy then, Thyagarajan added, much to embarrassment of DMK.
