DMK president M.K. Stalin on Friday said even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi tried to prevent his party from holding gram sabhas (now rechristened ‘makkal gram sabhas’ or MGS), as part of the ‘We reject AIADMK’ campaign, it would be futile. He said Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami had become jittery over the DMK holding the meetings.
Addressing an MGS at Marakkanam in Villupuram, he said the government had cancelled permissions for holding gram sabhas at the eleventh hour. “If we had gone ahead and held the meetings, defying the directions, it would have resulted in chaos, and the police would have resorted to arrests. But we have now rechristened the forum. It is really amusing how the government banned the holding of the meetings, at the last minute, and this only shows how much the government is afraid of the DMK,” he said.
The DMK will defy any ban and hold meetings. He said the meetings have had a tremendous response, and on the second day, 58 lakh people took part across the State, and over two crore people watched the event online. “The AIADMK government is not able to stomach its success,” he said.
Mr. Stalin said the BJP government at the Centre had deprived the State governments of their rights and the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu was conniving with it. “We have come here to safeguard democracy, the way our late leader Kalaignar [Karunanidhi] safeguarded democracy during the Emergency,” he said.
Recalling the 97-page petition submitted to the Governor, demanding action against Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and some of his Ministers, Mr. Stalin said the Governor had promised action since he also sensed the DMK would come to power soon. The State witnessed no development all these years and has been reeling with corruption, he added.
Pointing out that the cases against former Union Minister A. Raja and MP Kanimozhi had been dismissed by the court, Mr. Stalin said that none of the cases against the DMK had been proved, “since they were filed with political motives.”
He said though he did not intend to criticise former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, since she was no more, but “the fact remained that she was convicted” and handed punishment.
With regard to the allegation of the Chief Minister that the DMK was indulging in family politics, Mr. Stalin said he had climbed the ladder, in a phased manner, through party work.
“Our commitment is to ensure that the party functions like a family, but the AIADMK has been promoting nepotism,” he said.
