A maiden speech with an accent to boot

The maiden speech by DMK member P.T.R. Palanivel Thiagarajan in the State Legislative Assembly on Monday came as a surprise to several members in the House, as the son of former Speaker P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan chose to speak predominantly in English.

After initially starting his speech in Tamil, in which he thanked the DMK leadership for the chance to represent his Madurai Central constituency, Mr. Thiagarajan, who was previously settled in the U.S., said he was more comfortable in English, especially when it came to financial matters.

Even as several members in the House, including many Ministers, were trying hard to follow Mr. Thiagarajan’s speech in a western accent, in which he criticised that the revenue was coming down over the years, it was AIADMK legislator ‘Mafoi’ K. Pandiarajan who intervened first to defend government spending on welfare schemes.

However, Mr. Pandiarajan’s intervention didn’t go well with the DMK members. The Speaker had to intervene to control the angry DMK members who were on their feet, and said a member could seek clarification even when another MLA was making a maiden speech.

Later, Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam elaborated on the status of various projects envisaged in ‘Vision Tamil Nadu 2023’ and said the government was only spending on welfare schemes such as infrastructure so that the State’s debts could be repaid at the earliest.

Despite requests by DMK Deputy Floor Leader M. Duraimurugan to allow Mr. Thiagarajan to speak without interventions by Mr. Pandiarajan, the Speaker held that any member could seek clarification.

Armed with ‘State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2015-2016’ published by the Reserve Bank of India in April this year, Mr. Thiagarajan claimed that Mr. Pandiarajan’s replies were “not relevant” to issues he had raised. Mr. Panneerselvam, however, said that Tamil Nadu was in a better position compared to other States.