Is Tamil Nadu a bird sanctuary for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit during the election season alone, Chief Minister M K Stalin asked, elucidating on the neglect that the State had suffered under the BJP government in New Delhi in various forms.
Addressing an election meeting in Madurai on Tuesday to introduce alliance candidates, Su Venkatesan of the CPM from Madurai constituency and Karthi Chidambaram of the Congress from Sivaganga constituency, Stalin wondered as to why Modi had so much acrimony against the State.
He said that vote cast by the people in favour of the INDIA coalition candidates was not just to elect a good MP for them but to pave the way for a democrat to come in as the Prime Minister of the country, who would give exemption for Tamil Nadu from NEET and increase the wage for beneficiaries of NREGA scheme to Rs 400 a day.
Besides fixing a minimum support price for agricultural produce to help farmers, the next Prime Minister, who would not at all be like the present incumbent, would have a real concern for social justice and would double the assistance given to students of the SC, ST and OBC communities, he said.
Explaining the alleged animosity of the BJP towards the Tamil language, Tamil Nadu and the people of the State, Stalin said Modi had let loose a Governor who would call the State as Tamizham and not by its given name ‘Tamil Nadu,’ deride ancient scholars like Robert Caldwell and G U Pope.
Raising a question to Modi, who he said was dividing the people of the State on religious lines, he asked why was just Rs 74 crore allotted to development of Tamil as against the allocation of Rs 1488 crore for Sanskrit when he always professed his love for Tamil and declared idli and Pongal as his favourite dishes whenever he came to State.
Accusing Modi of not announcing any special scheme for the State in the past 10 years, he said he was victimizing all the States governed by opposition parties and cited examples of the neighbouring States of Kerala and Karnataka forced to approach courts for relief and also holding protests on the streets of Delhi.
He also referred to the developments in other States like Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Punjab and Delhi and said that Modi was intimidating the Chief Ministers by using the Governors and the triumvirate of IT-ED-CBI.
Taking a swipe at the AIADMK, he said it had come as a B team of the BJP to help the party by splitting the votes in the elections by enacting a drama that it had broken ties with the BJP when it had not even once spoken against the BJP or Modi. BJP was the enemy and the AIADMK was a traitor, he said.
