Chennai: Urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop derogating the State and its people for the sake of garnering a few votes, Chief Minister M K Stalin accused him of trying to create enmity between the people of Odisha and Tamil Nadu by alleging that the missing keys of the ‘Ratna Bhandar’ (treasury) of the famous Puri Jagannath temple were in Tamil Nadu.
Referring to the Prime Minister’s controversial speech at an election rally in Angul, Stalin, in a statement on Tuesday, said that it was an insult to Lord Jagannath and a continuation of Modi’s false propaganda aimed at inciting people of one State against the other as he had earlier charged South Indians with speaking low of the people of Uttar Pradesh.
Wondering as to why Modi harboured so much animosity against Tamil people, Stalin said that it had become his habit to speak glowingly of Tamil language and praise Tamilians as intelligent people when he came to the State and make a volte face when he visited other States like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha by speaking ill of Tamil Nadu and its people.
Now he had tried to incite hatred among the people of Odisha, who revered Lord Jagannath, against Tamilians by alleging that the missing keys of the Puri temple’s treasury were in Tamil Nadu, Stalin said.
Modi, who launched a scathing attack on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and its unassailable leader Naveen Patnaik at election meetings in Angul and Cuttack, was apparently making the reference to Tamil Nadu because Patnaik’s close aide V K Pandian hailed from the State. He had also attacked Pandian in the meetings.
Stalin accused Modi of trying to portray Tamilians as dishonest people and disrespect the State and thus hurting the sentiments of Tamil people and driving a wedge between the people of Tamil Nadu and Odisha, who otherwise had a cordial relationship.
He said the Prime Minister, who should set an example by speaking about policies, principles and action plans and indulge in constructive criticism, had breached all norms of civilization through his hate speech aimed at creating divisions and enmity among people of different States.
Modi should stop inciting people against each other in the name of religion, language, race and State, he added.
Officials of the Jagannath temple realized that the keys of the treasure trove, situated close to the sanctum sanctorum were missing when they went to inspect the structural condition as per an order of the Odisha High Court in April 2018.
Subsequently Patnaik ordered a judicial enquiry into the incident and the report has not been made public so far, giving ammunition to Modi to make the allegation and drag Tamil Nadu's name into it.
