Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M.K. Stalin on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of protecting the “corrupt” AIADMK regime headed by Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami as the latter was ready to be its “slave”.
The BJP government had allowed the AIADMK to plunder Tamil Nadu as the regime under Mr. Palaniswami had mortgaged the State government and the party to the Centre, Mr. Stalin alleged.
Addressing DMK functionaries of the district through a virtual meet from Chennai as part of the ‘Tamizhagam Meetpo’ campaign, Mr. Stalin alleged as in the British period, when some smaller kings were looting the people after making payments (‘Kappam’) to the colonial rulers, the AIADMK government was “plundering” the State by doing the same to the BJP government at the Centre.
As a sequel to this, Tamil Nadu had not only lost its due rights but also its economic power with industrial development completely destroyed, resulting in unemployment. Further, projects affecting the people were being imposed on the State.
Terming the 10-year AIADMK rule as “anarchic”, “anti-people” and “corrupt”, Mr. Stalin said Tamil Nadu was under severe distress under the present regime.
Vijayabaskar blamed
Mr. Stalin said Health Minister C. Vijayabaskar, a native of Pudukottai district, had a major role in bringing disrepute to the AIADMK government. He said the Health Minister had lied that COVID-19 preparatory measures were taken in January itself. He had spread wrong information that the State was prepared to deal with the pandemic, Mr. Stalin further alleged.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic had claimed over 11,000 lives in Tamil Nadu, besides affecting lakhs of people, he said while faulting the “ignorance” of the Health Minister about the viral infection.
Mr. Vijayabaskar had been giving wrong statistics on the number of deaths and the number of those affected due to COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, Mr. Stalin claimed, while alleging that the AIADMK government was making a lot of “income” during the last six months.
Earlier, Mr. Stalin inaugurated a statue of former late DMK Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi at the Pudukottai district party unit office.
