If BJP comes to power again, no one can save the country, says CM Stalin

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin addressing the party booth-level agents in Ramanathapuram on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: L. Balachandar

If the BJP comes to power again at the Centre, no one can save the nation, DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said on Thursday. He called upon his party workers to come together to ensure the victory of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) in the Lok Sabha election next year.

Addressing the DMK’s 16,978 poll booth-level agents at a meeting in Ramanathapuram, he said the BJP government had miserably failed in every sphere. The maladministration of the Union and Manipur governments had left an impact on the northeastern State. “This is going to reflect in the Lok Sabha election,” he said.

Also read: Stalin deplores BJP’s ‘linguistic imperialism’

The emergence of INDIA had rattled the BJP. Unable to stomach the popularity that the front was gaining every day, BJP leaders had started having a sense of insecurity. “You have the higher responsibility of taking the good things done by the DMK to people. You must ensure a landslide for the party. I will take care of the alliance,” Mr Stalin said, amidst a thunderous applause.

According to him, having kept the Assembly election promises, the DMK emerged stronger in the last two years and would become more strong when the government gives Rs 1,000 as monthly rights grant to an estimated one crore women beneficiaries starting from September 14, the birth anniversary of party founder and former Chief Minister C N Annadurai.

The DMK president said the party would not be cowed down by the BJP’s threats. “We are not AIADMK to prostrate before the BJP. Do not believe in rumours, which are being spread by our political enemies. We are on a strong wicket. We are winning for sure. Naarpathum Namathe..(All 40 Lok Sabha seats in TN and Puducherry is ours),” he stressed.

Nirmala Sitharaman targeted

Mr Stalin charged that unable to take on the no-confidence motion tabled in the Parliament on the Manipur issue, when the DMK MPs made a strong pitch, the BJP was rattled. After other MPs in the Opposition too joined, the BJP had no other go but fumbled and failed. To cover up its flaws in Manipur and to silence its political rivals, the BJP indulged in ‘threatening’ its opponents. The DMK is not the party to fall prey to such designs. “We will give it back in full. The election results will show that I am right,” he said.

Mr Stalin said that apprehending trouble, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had nothing to say on his failure to contain the lawlessness in Manipur, in a bid to give a twist, the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman misled the Parliament with some other subject, which was irrelevant.

He charged that the statement made by DMK MP Kanimozhi in the Parliament made the ruling party members speechless due to which Ms Nirmala Sitharaman spoke on Jayalalithaa thus saving the PM from addressing on the real issue – Manipur.

The BJP’s claims on the fishermen issue was thoroughly wrong, the DMK chief said. They have been claiming that after 2014, when Mr Modi became the PM, there has not been any killings at all. They may have forgotten, but not the DMK, he said and recalled the shooting of Thangachimadam fisherman Britjo by the Sri Lankan Navy in 2017.

Senior leaders R S Bharati, TKS Illangovan, N R Illango, MPs Kanimozhi and Anthiyur Selvaraj, ministers Durai Murugan, K N Nehru, I Periasami, Ponmudi, KR Periakaruppan, KKSSR Ramachandran, Thangam Thennarasu, Raja Kannappan, Anitha Radhakrishnan and Geetha Jeevan, MLAs Kadar Basha alias Muthuramalingam and IP Senthil Kumar participated.

Taking off from his political pitch, Mr Stalin told the gathering about the history of Ramanathapuram and its long connection with the DMK from time immemorial, which had brought in development over the years.

Ramanathapuram, once known as “Thanniyilla Kaadu (bone dry district) was provided with the Cauvery integrated drinking water project during the DMK regime, when he (Stalin) was the Local Administration Minister. Since then, a number of habitations across many taluks were covered and the nomenclature became a thing of the past.

Likewise, Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) named the Ramanathapuram District Collectorate as Sethupathi Nagar in memory of the rich contributions and sacrifice of Sethupathi Rajah, who died in the prison after the British detained him in the Fort St George for 16 long years.