Chennai: The trapping of Ankit Tiwari, an officer with the Union Government’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), by the officials of the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) of the State Government on Friday assumed a multi-dimensional political colour on Saturday and triggered the maiden open spat between the AIADMK and the BJP after the two parties parted ways in September.
Reacting to the DVAC crackdown on Tiwari at Dindigul, BJP State President K Annamalai regretted that the level of maturity among politicians was less in the State and tried to brush aside the episode of the ED official demanding a bribe from a government doctor, Suresh Babu, as a regular occurrence, saying that such incidents had happened at various States.
When news persons sought the reaction of AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami to the ‘lower level of maturity’ comment, he said ‘let Annamalai first explain to us what maturity is’ at Omalur near Salem on Saturday. This is the first time Palaniswami had said something against a BJP leader after walking out of the NDA.
Another top AIADMK leader C Ve Shanmugham said at Villupuram that Annamalai was the only political leader who lacked in maturity in the State, which perhaps could mark the beginning of acrimonious exchanges between leaders of both the parties that had been so far refraining from hitting out at each other after the break-up.
All-India Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said ‘one of the superstar campaigners of the BJP has stumbled yet again, this time in Tamil Nadu,’ referring to the arrest of Tiwari who was caught red-handed with Rs 20 lakh for ‘extortion and bribery.’
Annamalai had said that it was not proper to paint the entire ED black just because some individual officers had erred and said that in a recent incident another ED officer was caught in Rajasthan on a similar offence and that such things would continue to happen as mistakes were likely to happen wherever human beings were.
State CPM leader K Balabharti, in a statement, said that since the ED had been functioning as the lackey organisation of the BJP with a political agenda for put down the party’s opponents and since the arrested officer had mentioned that he had received instruction from the PMO the whole issue should be properly investigated.
She alleged that the BJP was using the ED officers to collect money for funding its elections and demanded proper security for the government doctor, from whom Tiwari tried to extort Rs 51 lakh, forcing him to approach the police.
Jairam Ramesh said ‘The Modi government has completely damaged the reputation of ED/CBI/IT by turning them into political tools to harass and intimidate the Opposition and anyone who questions the government. Now its officers are running their own mini extortion rackets.’
State CPM secretary K Balakrishnan, extolling the DVAC for conducting the raids at the office of the ED in Madurai, said that it was pertinent to figure out where the money collected by the agency as bribe went because the ED officials were being caught in various places.
State Assembly Speaker M Appavu to media persons in Tirunelveli that he too was approached by a middle man, who tried to intimidate him and extort money in the last three months by saying that a case had been filed against him and that it was better for him to get away somewhere after switching off his phone. He ignored the call and went about his business, he said.
TNCC president K S Alagiri said the Tiwari episode had exposed the purpose for which the ED was being used by the Union Government in the State as incriminating documents had been seized by the DVAC during the raids conduct at the office in Madurai despite the resistance put up the CRPF personnel posted there to prevent their entry.
MDMK leader Vaiko wanted the ED to be exposed since people should know about their activities and how the agency was used by the ruling party to threaten and intimidate opposition leaders.
