Chennai: Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of commandeering a massive Rs 6500 crore industrial project that was to have come to Coimbatore and taking it to Gujarat through threats handed out to the company by the CBI, ED and I-T departments, Chief Minister M K Stalin said 35 per cent of the mills in Coimbatore remained closed because of the two attacks on the economy launched by the BJP government.
Sharing the stage with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at an election meeting in Coimbatore district on Friday, Stalin hit out at the Prime Minister for the demonetization and for an agreement signed with Bangladesh that ruined the textile sector and said that a semiconductor project that was to have come to Coimbatore was also hijacked to Gujarat.
What pleasure did Modi derive from depriving the youth of Coimbatore region of jobs, Stalin asked and said that the Rs 6500 crore industrial project of a Tamil Nadu based company that would have brought 1000 of jobs was wrested out by force after the State government had arrived at an understanding with the promoter.
At the meeting held at Chittalapalayam in Coimbatore district, Stalin introduced and canvassed votes for the candidates of INDIA coalition from Coimbatore, Ganapathy Rajkumar, Pollachi, Easwaran, and Karur, Jothimani, he wondered as to how Modi was able to come to Tamil Nadu, putting up a farce saying that he loved idly, Pongal and the Tamil language, and seek the people’s votes working against the State in so many ways.
The resounding response of the people of Tamil Nadu to the BJP that had prevented the State’s growth, neglected the Tamil language and assaulted Tamil culture on the day of polling, on April 19, should be to say loudly ‘we don’t want Modi’ and exercise their franchise accordingly, Stalin told the crowd.
The hero of the elections was the Congress manifesto that was prepared meticulously by Rahul Gandhi, he said and pointed out that it reflected many of the aspects of the DMK’s manifesto like social justice, replacing the present GST with a more industry friendly tax regime, fixing of the minimum support price for agricultural produce and taking agriculture out of the GST bracket.
Did Modi, who had earlier been always touring foreign nations, speak anything about his government’s achievements in the past 10 years after he changed his travel style and started visiting places within the country to campaign for the elections, Stalin asked.
He also asked if Modi was not ashamed to accuse other parties of corruption when he was the one who introduced electoral bonds that had been slammed by the Supreme Court, when the CAG report exposed a ‘seven scheme- seven hundred lakh crore rupees – mega scam’ and when he had not explained the merits of the PM Care scheme to mobilise money for himself.
On electoral bonds, if other parties also sought donations, it was only because Modi made it legal, he said and alleged that the companies were made to cough up funds for the BJP through electoral bonds by putting the I-T, CBI and ED triumvirate as a Damocles Sword over their head, he said.
As far as the Rafale scam went, the Modi government paid Rs 1670 crore for a Rafale fighter aircraft, for which the Congress government had fixed the price at Rs 526 crore and never revealed as to who benefited out of that scam.
He also launched a scathing attack on the AIADMK, saying that the party general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami did not know who should rule and who should not rule and also why his party was contesting the elections. Accusing Palaniswami of backstabbing all those who were with him, he pointed out that he was still refusing to criticize the BJP on the pretext of ‘coalition dharma.’
