Time is ripe for the people of Tamil Nadu to overthrow the AIADMK government which has become a slave of the BJP, Veerappa Moily, AICC observer for the Congress’s election campaign management in Tamil Nadu, said on Thursday.
The former Union Minister said that the AIADMK has not upheld federalism and that the BJP is acting as a patron of the AIADMK.
“The AIADMK supported the Citizenship Amendment Act. Had it not been for their 12 votes [in Rajya Sabha], that Bill would not have passed. Now the AIADMK is saying they will ask the Centre to revoke CAA. All this is being done for the purpose of election. If you look at how the BJP is playing it, they are not raising the issue of CAA in Assam, but in West Bengal, they are talking about it,” he told The Hindu.
Mr. Moily said the three Farm Bills too were passed only because of the AIADMK supporting it in Parliament. “There is brazen slavishness on the part of the AIADMK,” he alleged adding that if former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, was alive, she would have never let things come to such a pass.
Slamming the BJP government for abstaining in the UNHRC vote on Sri Lanka recently, Mr. Moily claimed this showed that the party was not interested in the welfare of Tamilians. He said protection of Tamilians was in the psyche of the electorate. “Politics is more important for the NDA than the welfare of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. This abstention is a big blow for the Tamilians,” he said.
When asked why the Congress was not seeking a share of the power in the State with the DMK, Mr. Moily said that was not a dominant demand of the party. The party was more concerned about the stability and integrity of the country than ‘grabbing power’. “Sharing power is only incidental. It is not the dominant factor,” he added.
According to him, DMK president M.K. Stalin was a natural leader who had trained under his father and then DMK patriarch, M. Karunanidhi. “This time we are going to be victorious, and he is bound to be the Chief Minister,” Mr. Moily said.
The campaign of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the dynamic leadership of Mr. Stalin will reap rich electoral rewards and there is a groundswell of support for the DMK-led alliance, he added. “We are now a stronger, vibrant and secular front. In the last 10 years, there has been misrule of the NDA and [Prime Minister] Modi. People think this is the end of the AIADMK rule,” he said.
