Chennai:The ongoing war of words between the ruling DMK and the opposition AIADMK on the State government employees’ grievances hit a crescendo on Tuesday with the State Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu joining the fray to say that the government staff and teachers did not have confidence on the AIADMK that had let them down in many ways in the past unlike the DMK that had always stood by them.
The exchange of diatribes began with AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami launching a broadside against the DMK government accusing it of letting down the State government employees and not addressing their long pending grievances while addressing a public meeting.
Since he made some serious allegations and also said the Chief Minister M K Stalin had earned the wrath of the government employees, who had vowed to make him the Leader of the Opposition after the 2026 Assembly elections, the State government came out with a detailed explanation on the issue, listing out what had been done for the welfare of government employees.
The official press release issued late on Monday night recalled the invoking of draconian legislations like ESMA and TESMA leading to the instant dismissal of lakhs and lakhs of government employees who struck work during the regime of J Jayalalithaa and also mentioned many other charges against the earlier AIADMK governments with regard to mishandling of government staff.
Palaniswami responded to those charges through a statement on Tuesday, calling the official press release as an ‘annonymous’ letter since it was not issued in the name of anyone.
Refuting the charges of Palaniswami quickly, Thennaru issued a statement later on Tuesday itself asking if television channels and media houses would have taken note of the statement and carried it if it was an ‘annoymous letter’ as made out by the Leader of the Opposition..
Recalling several instances in the various AIADMK regimes like the release of a candidates list for the 2011 Assembly elections with nominees for the constituencies already allotted to allies without any signature only to backtrack on that and then Jayalalithaa saying in 2007 that her party MPs and MLAs had voted for the President’s election without her knowledge, he said those were cases of anonymous letters.
Thennasu recalled Jayalalaithaa created an aversion for government employees among the public by making a public statement in 2001 that 94 per cent of the government revenue was spent on paying salaries of government employees, adding that Palaniswami was in no way second to her as he also humiliated government staff once by asking teachers if they were paid so much and in another occasion asking striking government staff it was fair on their part to go on strike when they were paid so much.
Palaniswami was hoodwinking everyone by claiming that during the AIADMK rule people were free to go on strike and referred to the crackdown on protesting government staff in 2017, 2017 and 2019, the Minister said, adding that the AIADMK leader was shedding crocodile tears for government employees now after oppressing them when he as in power.
