Congress slams Dr Anbumani Ramadoss smear campaign against Rahul Gandhi

Chennai: The Congress on Tuesday slammed the smear campaign by the PMK leader Dr Anbumani Ramadoss against Congress president Rahul Gandhi on the Mekedatu dam issue, saying it smacked of a “neo-Goebbellsian dimension” on the part of the BJP's ally- the PMK- in Tamil Nadu for the April 18 Lok Sabha elections.

Referring to the statement by Dr Anbumani, the PMK's candidate for the Dharmapuri Lok Sabha seat, as part of the AIADMK-BJP alliance in the state, that Rahul Gandhi in his campaign speech in Karnataka had assured of a reservoir over the Cauvery at Mekedatu and that the Cauvery Management Board (CMB) would be dismantled if Congress was voted to power at the Centre, the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K S Azhagiri said nowhere had Rahul in his Karnataka poll campaign made such a speech.

Stating that this was a “slanderous charge” leveled against Rahul about something which had not spoken at all, Azhagiri asked whether Dr Anbumani could furnish any “proof” for Rahul having made that purported speech in Karnataka.

On the contrary, Azhagiri said that it was the BJP government at the Centre, the Water Resources ministry under Nitin Gadkari which had given the go-ahead to Karnataka in November 2018 to prepare a detailed feasibility report on the Mekedatu project, when the Supreme court had clearly laid down that no new projects across the Cauvery could be taken up without the CMB's approval.

It was the BJP which had thus “betrayed” Tamil Nadu's interests in the Mekedatu and Cauvery issues; but the PMK and AIADMK was now having a political alliance with that party, Mr. Azhagiri said, adding, the elections were an opportunity for the people to defeat the AIADMK-BJP-PMK alliance.

The Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister, O. Pannerselvam have also been citing Rahul's remarks in Karnataka to say that the Mekedatu project if implemented would “make Tamil Nadu a desert.”