TN CM slams DMK,dubs Stalin a 'statement hero' on corruption allegations against ruling AIADMK
Chief Minister K Palaniswami onThursday attacked the DMK and its leader MK Stalin, terminghim a statement hero, over repeated allegations ofcorruption against the ruling dispensation, seeking to remindit of the “very big” 2G spectrum allocation scam.
DMK MPs Kanimozhi and A Raja, also former TelecomMinister, were earlier accused in the scam but acquitted by aspecial court. The CBI has since appealed against the lowercourt verdict in the Delhi High Court.
Raja flayed Palaniswami, asking him to show anyDMK leader who has been convicted for graft and said he wasready for a public debate on the issue with the chiefminister.
Speaking to reporters here, Palaniswami also defendedthe Centres contentious recent farm laws, against whichfarmers have been staging a massive protest near Delhi.
Refuting Stalins allegations of corruption and scam,especially in government tenders, Palaniswami said that dueprocesses were being followed and ruled out anyirregularities.
“The 2G spectrum (allocation) scam was a very bigscam. The amount of Rs 1.76 lakh crore (the alleged loss) isequivalent to Tamil Nadus budget. It happened when they werein power at the Centre with the Congress,” he said.
“(The then) Congress government took action and he(Raja) was put in jail,” Palaniswami said and questionedhow the opposition party could now make allegations againstthe AIADMK government.
He also questioned the “first come first serve basis”of spectrum allocation then, an aspect that was scrutinised.
“Such a big scam happened and they are targeting theAIADMK government to conceal this,” he said.
Training his guns against Stalin, he lampooned himfor “issuing statements daily sitting inside a room” anddubbed him as a “Statement Hero.” “He is desperate that he could not capture power andthis (allegations by Stalin) is a result of that,” the AIADMKCo-Coordinator said.
He said the erstwhile DMK government “is the only onein the country to be dismissed for corruption” and thereforeStalin had no right to talk about graft.
Palaniswami also slammed the DMK for being a “dynastic”party and said Union Home Minister Amit Shah had alsoattacked it on the subject recently in Chennai, saying therewould be no place for such politics in Tamil Nadu.
On the protest by farmers against Centres new farmlaws, Palaniswami reiterated it did not affect the ryots andsaid it protected them from price fluctuation, among others.
Farmers could now sell their produce anywhere in thecountry, he added.
The chief minister quipped the BJP workers should behighlighting all these aspects and asked them to take thefacts to people.
He also said he has not received any negativefeedback from farmer unions in Tamil Nadu about thelegislations.
Responding to Palaniswamis tirade against his partyand himself, Raja said no DMK leader has been convicted ofcorruption, since the days of the late Indira Gandhi or MGRamachandran, even in “politically influenced” cases.
“The statement made by the chief minister does notsuit his office and is not in good taste,” he told reportersin Chennai.
Pointing out that he was picked by jailed formerAIADMK leader VK Sasikala as CM prior to her incarceration in2017, Raja alleged Palaniswami came to the post by”accident.” “I am prepared for a debate tomorrow or day afterwith him on 2G (case) if he can show if any DMK leader hasbeen convicted for graft allegations including in 2G,” Rajasaid.
In an apparent reference to the conviction offormer chief minister late J Jayalalithaa in adisproportionate assets case, he said “the AIADMKs corruptionhad been proved.” With the death of Jayalalithaa in 2016, who was thefirst accused in the case, the appeal by Karnataka againsther acquittal by the Karnataka High Court stood abated in theSupreme Court, which had convicted Sasikala and two of herrelatives in the case.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)