Edappadi Palaniswami slams Arvind Kejriwal on Tamils issue

Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami on Monday hit back at his Delhi counterpart for his anti-Tamil campaign, telling him that the students from Tamil Nadu get college admissions in the national capital only due to their academic capabilities and they do not snatch away the seats from the Delhi students.

“Students from Tamil Nadu have not snatched away the opportunities from the Delhi students; the Tamils get their seats in Delhi only based on their academic capabilities”, CM Palaniswami tweeted in anguished response to Arvind Kejriwal’s oft-repeated allegation that the students from Delhi were losing out those from Tamil Nadu.

The Aam Admi Party, in its recently released Lok Sabha election manifesto, had promised 85 per cent seats for Delhi residents in the city colleges if AAP got elected and secured ‘full statehood’ for the Union Territory. Besides, Kejriwal had wailed multiple times that students from Tamil Nadu have been filling up most classrooms in Delhi’s prestigious colleges and in Delhi University.

Explaining his stance, the AAP CM has said while he's not against the students from other states getting admission to institutions in Delhi, his only concern is that locals are denied seats in the process. Students from Tamil Nadu manage to get the admissions because they came with good marks secured in their state board plus-two exams while the Delhi students fall short as they are from the tougher CBSE stream. For instance, TN students had taken away 140 of the 150 seats available in a reputed Delhi college, he said, without naming the institution.

"Our children do not get admission in colleges even after they secure 90% marks. If we get full statehood, our students passing class 12 will have 85% seats reserved for them in Delhi colleges", Kejriwal has said, stretching his concern for even the government jobs in the national capital, which he alleged were mostly taken away from 'outsiders'.

The AAP's anti-Tamil campaign seemed so scary for the Tamil students in Delhi that they filed a complaint on May 3 with the Chief Election Commissioner alleging that CM Kejriwal was violating the model code of conduct by "creating a divide among students". They were particularly incensed by the bombardment of phone calls with the CM's recorded voice saying that "every year, 500 students from Tamil Nadu are taking admissions in DU and that reduces opportunities for Delhi residents".  

The AAP had singled out TN students in its Lok Sabha campaign and the move could create "a hostile environment" for them in Delhi, said the complaint from 'Delhi University Tamil Students' Association' in its petition to the CEC, Delhi, while insisting, "We are not reducing anyone's opportunity. We are entering good DU colleges through our marks only. And why has he taken the name of only our state, when half of the DU students are from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab? These messages could create trouble for us", said the association president Shravena Raghulasr, who is a law student at DU.

Reports said the Election Commission has merely stamped the complaint as 'received' and there has been no further action on the Tamil anguish.

Kejri, Stalin view on TN students similar
While AAP and its CM, Arvind Kejriwal have launched a bitter campaign alleging that students from Tamil Nadu are taking away most of the DU seats at the cost of the locals, there has been a near-similar charge erupting out of the DMK campaign chimney these days.

DMK president M K Stalin, during his recent poll campaign speeches, has been claiming that most of the jobs in Central Government establishments in Tamil Nadu were being taken away by people from the North. He said it was a 'betrayal' of TN by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accused CM Edappadi Palaniswami of complicity.

The DMK chief also alleged that 300 vacancies were recently filled in the railways by mostly North Indians and none from TN.

The DMK would ensure 90% jobs for the sons-of-the-soil in Central establishments in TN after the votes in the Lok Sabha elections are counted on May 23 and the party earns a say at the Centre.