DMK deputy general secretary A. Raja on Thursday challenged Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to an open debate on who was corrupt and on the 2G spectrum allocation issue.
“Let it be at Fort St. George. Let the Chief Minister bring his Advocate-General and Law Secretary. I am ready to face him in a debate on who was corrupt,” he said, reacting to Mr. Palaniswami’s charge that the DMK was “a corporate company and its corruption was equivalent to the State budget”.
Mr. Raja said that in the 2G case, he did not seek even the benefit of the doubt in his favour, but subjected himself to the grilling by the CBI for 15 days. “From the days of Warren Hastings, no other public servant has subjected himself to such a legal battle. Finally, the court decided in favour of me. They are not even able to file the appeal against the verdict [of a special court],” he said at a press conference.
‘Not proved’
Mr. Raja said the allegation against the DMK over the execution of the Veeranam scheme was not proved. “The enemies of the DMK cite the Sarkaria Commission and say the party had indulged in scientific corruption. But in reality, there is no such reference in the Commission’s report,” he said.
He said Mr. Palaniswami, who carried the photograph of Jayalalithaa, who was convicted in a disproportionate assets case, had no locus standi to criticise the DMK. He said that in the case against Jayalalithaa, the Supreme Court had said, “Not only such a character is an anathema to the preambulor promise of justice, liberty, equality, fraternal dignity, unity and integrity of the country, which expectantly ought to animate the life and spirit of every citizen of this country, but also is an unpardonable onslaught on the constitutional religion that forms the bedrock of our democratic polity.”
