Chennai: Opposition political leaders have come down heavily against the AIADMK government for launching the Rs 50.80 crore project to build a massive phoenix-shaped memorial for Jayalalithaa at the Marina, calling it an unethical act defeating democracy.
“This is absolutely against democratic norms. She (Jayalalithaa) was prime accused in the disproportionate assets case (in which her associate Sasikala Natarajan was jailed by the Supreme Court).
Constructing memorial for her is tantamount to erecting memorial for someone sent to jail on corruption charges”, DMK working president M.K. Stalin told reporters at his Kolathur Assembly constituency on Monday.
PMK chief Dr S. Ramadoss in a stinging statement said erecting memorial for Jayalalithaa “is like crowning corruption”.
People would see this structure at Marina “only as a symbol of corruption”, he said, reminding that as per the Supreme Court conviction in the DA case, Jayalalithaa “would be in the Bengaluru Parapana Agraharam jail if she is alive now”.
Recalling that the Supreme Court, while convicting the accused in the DA case, had imposed a fine of Rs 100 crore, a record in Indian history, Dr
Ramadoss said, “It is just unacceptable that a memorial, that too at a cost of Rs 50.80 crore, is being built for Jayalalithaa”.
“It would tantamount to crowning corruption if this phoenix-shaped memorial is built for Jayalalithaa who had sullied the image of Tamil Nadu as a corrupt State”, said the PMK leader.
