AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Thursday dared DMK president and Chief Minister M.K. Stalin for a debate on achievements of their respective governments.
“I shall come wherever you desire. Try seeking votes with your achievements at the debate instead of peddling lies about AIADMK, the former Chief Minister said, adding: “Your uncivilized talks are shameful and do not befit the position you hold. Your falsehood about AIADMK rule as ‘black regime’ with an eye on political gains will not work as people in Tamil Nadu are knowledgeable,” the former Chief Minister said while addressing a public meeting here to seek votes for AIADMK’s Coimbatore Lok Sabha candidate Singai G. Ramachandran.
Referring to Mr. Stalin’s charge that the AIADMK was afraid of BJP and in a “secret liaison”, Mr. Palaniswami said his party was not like the DMK, which, he pointed out, was in the habit of “surrendering to the BJP behind the veneer of bravado”, and cited the instance of the DMK Government inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for six times so far for launching schemes and events in Tamil Nadu.
Attributing the verdict on Cauvery issue in the interests of farmers to the pro-active approach of AIADMK in Parliament, Mr. Palaniswami sought to know why the DMK did not emphasise on the BJP Government at the Centre filing an affidavit in the Supreme Court for retrieval of ‘Katchathivu’ islet.
Training his guns equally at BJP, Mr. Palaniswami said its focus on ‘Katchathivu’ issue at this juncture was to secure votes of the fisher community.
The DMK while in power in 1974 was silent when Katchathivu was ceded by the then Central Government to Sri Lanka. On the other hand, the AIADMK has all along been pursuing the legal approach for retrieval of Katchathivu islet, he said.
On the electoral bonds issue, Mr. Palaniswami said the DMK’s critcisim of BJP was tantamount to “a smaller thief questioning a bigger thief.”
The hike in power tariff, property tax and escalation in the cost of essentials have caused misery to common people, the former Chief Minister said, often invoking the names of MGR and ‘Puratchi Thalaivi’ to describe their selfless service to the people during his talk spanning about an hour.
Mr. Palaniswami demanded to know why the DMK Government had cancelled the tender for five major roads granted during the AIADMK regime for development of Coimbatore. The DMK Government had gone back on its promises on old pension scheme. Farmers and transport sector workers feel deceived, he said.
The former Chief Minister screened to the public video snippets of Mr. Stalin and jailed former Minister Senthil Balaji criticising one another with strong rhetoric in the past, in a bid to expose their “opportunism”.
On the crackdown on narcotics, Mr. Palaniswami said DMK Government has destroyed youths by fostering the menace. “Big persons are likely be arrested, before or after the election”, he said.
