Learnt from PM Modi how to talk for hours without answering questions, says Stalin

DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Tuesday quipped that he learnt from Prime Minister Narendra Modi how to talk for hours without responding to anyone’s questions.

Referring to Mr. Modi’s recent reply in Parliament on the motion of thanks to the President’s address, he said the Prime Minister’s speech only had grandiloquence, but no answers to the several allegations raised by the opposition. The Prime Minister was claiming that the people were his shield even without the people saying so, he added.

According to him, the accusations against Adani Group were accusations on the BJP government and the questions raised by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the matter were “piercing”. It was shocking that the Prime Minister did not utter a word on this, Mr. Stalin said in Ungalil Oruvan, a programme recorded in question-and-answer format by his party.

Stressing the need for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) investigation into the allegations against Adani Group, he said expunging the remarks by leaders like Mr. Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge from Parliament records on the issue was against democratic traditions. Their speeches cannot be expunged from the people’s minds, he said.

While MPs from DMK raised questions on various issues, including the Sethusamudram project, State’s rights, National Eligibility-cum Entrance Test and interventions by the Governor, he said Mr. Modi did not respond to any of these issues. Alleging that Tamil Nadu had been ignored in the recent Union budget, Mr. Stalin said the Prime Minister had nothing to say to Tamil Nadu.

On Mr. Modi questioning the “irony” of DMK allying with Congress as the latter had dissolved the former’s government [in 1976], Mr. Stalin countered how could a person from BJP, which was allying with the AIADMK that brought down the BJP government [in 1999], ask that question.

He felt Mr. Modi’s remarks that only Enforcement Directorate (ED) had united the opposition was a “confession” on why ED was being used. “For the first time, a Prime Minister has confessed in Parliament that he was targeting Opposition parties,” he contended, adding it was not good for the country, autonomous bodies, and democracy.

He criticised Governor R.N. Ravi for delaying his assent for the Bill banning online rummy. It was even more tragic that the Union government was planning to tax the money won in online rummy.

On former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s allegation that the DMK came to power by making false promises, Mr. Stalin said one could expect such an allegation from a person who ordered the killing of protesters during anti-Sterlite struggle in Thoothukudi and later claimed that he came to know of the firing only through television news channels.

According to him, the present government had fulfilled 85% of its promises, along with some initiatives that were not even promised. The remaining few promised schemes would be fulfilled in a year, he said. Contesting in ‘two leaves’ symbol would not help the AIADMK to win the bypoll in Erode (East), he said.