Stalin’s Straight Questions to Modi
Chennai: Addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as one coming to the State during the election season just like a bird flying into a sanctuary, Chief Minister M K Stalin fired a fusillade of questions asking him if he would give guarantee for holding the caste census and raising the present ceiling of 50 per cent for reservation in the country.
In his message on X, with a hashtag, ‘please reply, Modi,’ Stalin said Modi was now coming with a ‘guarantee card’ after his earlier ‘Gujarat Model’ and ‘chowkidar’ facades had failed and asked him straight if he would give a guarantee to exempt Tamil Nadu from NEET and that Hindi and Sanskrit would never be imposed.
Among the other questions were: If he would give guarantee to implement reservation for SC, ST and OBC candidates as per norms, to revert education to the State list from the present concurrent list, to generate 2 crore jobs for the youth every year, raise the wages paid under NREGA to Rs 400 and fix a minimum support price for agricultural produce.
Would Modi assure to remove the cess and surcharges and bring down the prices of LPG cylinders, petrol and diesel that were raised at random, to allow the ED, IT and CBI to function independently, to share tax revenue fairly with the States, reform the GST to save the MSMEs, handle gang violence with an iron hand and order an open enquiry into all corruption charges against the BJP, including the Vyapam scam, he asked.
Wondering if Modi would allow freedom of expression, freedom of speech, retrieve the land encroached by the Chinese, recover the boats of fishermen from Tamil Nadu and stop the attacks on them by the Sri Lankan navy and cancel the Agnipath scheme under which recruitment to the armed forces was being made on a temporary basis, Stalin asked if flood relief for the State would be given from the National Disaster Relief Fund.
If Modi would not give guarantee for releasing funds for the Chennai Metro Rail, make Tamil one of the official languages of the country and the language of the High Court, besides announcing the Thirukural as the National Book, it would be exposed that all his guarantees were meant only for to clean those tainted by corruption in the ‘Made in BJP’ washing machine and dye them in saffron colours, he said.
Stalin also wanted the repeal of the CAA and a guarantee from Modi that he would not treat minorities as second class citizens of the country.