Chennai: A remark made by State Minister for MSME, T M Anbarasan, at a recent party function, has been construed as an affront to former Chief Ministers J Jayalalithaa and M G Ramachandran by AIADMK supporters, triggering a wave of angry outbursts against the Minister the DMK party and former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
AIADMK women’s wing secretary Valarmathi came out strongly against the comment that was part of the speech delivered by the Minister at a meeting organized by the DMK Youth Wing for enrolling members and said that the sexist remark was a legacy of Karunanidhi that the DMK leaders had inherited.
Accusing Anbarasan of derogating women leaders by following the footsteps of Karunanidhi, Valarmathi recalled old episodes of controversial statements. He said Karunanidhi made an unsavoury comment against former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after a police made a cane charge against protesting Congress workers during his tenure as Chief Minister.
Also he recounted Karunanidhi’s obscene reply to former Congress leader Anandanayagi, who had raised a question: ‘Where is Dravida Nadu.’
Leader of the AIADMK rival faction and former Chief Minister, O Panneerselvam, also slammed DMK leaders for the comment and demanded the removal of Anbarasan from the Ministry. He said that the DMK was on a weak wicket politically and would not be able to win an election without the support of its alliance partners.
Former Minister and AIADMK organization secretary D Jayakumar also came out heavily on the Minister for making the disparaging remark against Jayalalithaa. He said Anbarasan had been a slave of successive DMK leaders, starting from Karunanidhi, who personally had no qualification to be a Minister.
Jayakumar said that Anbarasan, who lacked culture and civilization, had no right to belittle Jayalalithaa and warned him of dire consequences if he continued to make such remarks.
The controversy had also provided grist for social media to discuss the Minister’s unsavoury comment with some criticizing him and others saying that he did not mean anything as interpreted by the supporters of Jayalalithaa.
In fact the Minister was trying to tell the DMK Youth wing members that film actors would not be able to run a party. If MGR could do it was because he had a political background and Jayalalithaa just inherited the party from him. Hereafter no actor without political experience would make it in politics, he had said.
