Chennai: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who termed the DMK as a ‘family party’ at a BJP meeting in Rameswaram on Friday, came under a scathing attack from Chief Minister M K Stalin and State Minister for Youth Welfare Udhayanidhi Stalin with both of them directing a fusillade of questions at him on Saturday at an event in the DMK headquarters.
Stalin accused Shah of coming to Tamil Nadu, a harmonious State, with a hope of stoking a communal riot as he could never organize a peace march in Manipur that had been burning for two months.
He called the ‘yatra’ that he flagged off on Friday as a march to seek the pardon of the people and redeem the BJP of its sins committed in Gujarat in 2002 and now in Manipur.
Addressing the newly inducted office-bearers of the DMK’s youth wing at the district and city levels, Stalin asked: ‘Did the Union Home Minister come to the State to launch any Central scheme? Or did he come to inaugurate the already announced AIIMS in the State?’
Referring to a comment made by Shah on political heirs, the Chief Minister said that if he were to start reeling out the names of heirs of BJP leaders holding positions, it would take an hour and referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had been talking about the DMK wherever he went – be it to Madhya Pradesh or Andamans - as he dreaded the acronym I.N.D.I.A.
The national alliance, I.N.D.I.A, had been formed only to make the objectives behind the starting of the 100-year-old Dravidian movement in the State acceptable to the entire country and that was the reason behind Modi’s fear of the DMK, he said.
Debunking Modi’s charge of ‘family rule’ in the State, he said the DMK’s rule had helped all the eight crore people in the State in some way or the other, besides benefiting crores of families in a big way through the pioneering schemes that it had launched like the Rs 4000 assistance during the pandemic, free bus rides for women and so on.
On Shah speaking about the Sri Lankan issue, he said it was the BJP that invited the former President of the island nation, Mahinda Rajapakse, as a special guest for the swearing in of the BJP government headed by Modi in 2014 and reminded the people of Modi’s election speech in Ramanathapuram stating that if he came to power he would solve the problem related to the regular arrest of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan navy in the Palk Straits.
Since Shah had criticized the continuation of Minister Senthil Balaji in the Cabinet, Stalin dared him to question Modi for keeping persons facing criminal charges in his Cabinet and accused the Union Government of using the Enforcement Directorate as a washing machine to launder political rivals.
The Union BJP government was on its last days as it had only a few more months to go with the bid to demolish democracy, social justice, secularism and the Constitution would come to an end, marking a new dawn for the country.
Calling upon the DMK’s Youth Wing office-bearers to ensure the defeat of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, it said it was imperative for protecting Tamil language, Tamil identity and Tamil people by reaching out to the people in person and seek their votes in favour of I.N.D.I.A.
He also urged the youth wing workers to make use of social media to educate the people about the DMK’s schemes and not much bothered about the allegations like dynasty made by the rivals.
