Key political parties in Tamil Nadu on Monday severely criticised Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for meeting the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa at her Poes garden residence here on Sunday. The parties questioned the propriety of the Minister’s action in the backdrop of the on-going hearing into the assets case against her by a special bench of the Karnataka High Court.
While the Jaitley-Jayalalithaa meeting was reportedly to seek the AIADMK’s cooperation to help pass crucial bills in the Rajya Sabha in the ensuing Budget session of Parliament, political leaders here refused to lend credence to it.
In a hard-hitting statement, the DMK President M Karunanidhi termed as a “blatant lie”, Mr. Jaitley’s explanation that the meeting was only a courtesy call.
ADVERTISEMENT
Asking how he could call on a former Chief Minister convicted in the wealth case by a special court, the DMK leader said the Finance Minister’s reported explanation that he had done so with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “approval”, only raised more doubts among the people.
“What will the people of the country think about the meeting now? Will they not wonder that there is more to the meeting than meets the eye?” Mr Karunanidhi asked.
The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee President, E.V. K. S. Elangovan said Mr. Jaitley calling on Ms. Jayalalithaa has “unmasked the BJP’s true face when it comes to opposing corruption.” The AIADMK, on its part, after a resounding Lok Sabha victory with 37 MPs’ from the State, had now “surrendered” before the BJP regime following her conviction by the trial court in Bengaluru in the assets case, he said. The DMK Treasurer, M.K. Stalin, in a Facebook post, regretted that the country’s Finance Minister should call on a person “convicted for corruption”. This was something unprecedented in the history of post-Independent India, asserted Mr. Stalin.
ADVERTISEMENT