Chennai, Mar 28:
Questioning the deteriorating law and order situation in Tamil Nadu, leader of opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami asked who would protect the people of Tamil Nadu if police personnel were being attacked by DMK functionaries.
Backing his claim, He said that he was not just blabbering for there were instances where police personnel had registered complaints after they were attacked by some DMK functionaries for stopping vehicles involved in illegal transportation stones. This proved that the law and order in the State was out of control, he charged.
Speaking at an election campaign in Tenkasi for PT leader Krishnaswami Edappadi Palaniswami said that despite being in power for three years, DMK did not speak about its achievements in the election campaign, rather “they only slammed” him.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister “has done nothing for the state, so there is nothing to talk about”, the AIADMK leader said, adding that “Stalin is a puppet chief minister.” In fact, the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly said that “Stalin mistakenly became the CM,” and because of this regime, “people are suffering a lot”.
“People are suffering under his rule but Stalin puts a pen symbol in the sea (pen-shaped monument for former CM M Karunanidhi) in memory of his father. If you want to put a pen symbol in your father’s memory, put it in your trust fund, why are wasting people’s money?” Palaniswami raised questions.
Palaniswami said, “ Stalin once in a meeting said that he was waking up every morning fearing what his party members would do next that would tarnish the party’s image. This is enough for the people to understand the situation has exacerbated to the level where it could not be controlled anymore.,”
In addition, drug usage, especially among youngsters, has increased. This increase can be equated to the recent developments in the State when a DMK functionary named Jaffer Sadiq was arrested for links with an international drug cartel and selling drugs worth ₹2,000 crores, he charged.
“Teams to identify and prevent selling of drugs near schools and colleges was constituted by the DMK government. The teams too earmarked about 2,000 people who were selling drugs near schools and colleges. Out of 2,000 only around 140 were arrested because the rest of them were DMK functionaries,” Palaniswami claimed. These might sound like tall allegations, but it was a fact which even the DMK could not disagree, he claimed further.
“Every step of the DMK government blatantly proves that it is a family party. Stalin very proudly announces that all his party cadre were his members, so it is not a bad thing to be called as a family party,” he added.
But would he make any of the party cadre who he says as his family, as the top leader, he questioned. “At the same time, AIADMK has repeatedly proved that it is a party of commoners. I, who started as a cadre rose to the level of general secretary, is the best example of what I say,” he noted.
Introducing AIADMK candidate for Kanniyakumari constituency Pasilian Nazerath, he said the candidate was another best example of how even a person from a fishing community could become a Member of Parliament candidate unlike the sitting MP Vijay Vasanth whose business background was well known.
Since DMK was not a party of commoners, its governance was also against the commoners of the State, he said. “Almost all steps taken by the DMK government starting from increase in petrol diesel price, hike in property tax to the exorbitant increase of the electricity tariff were against the commoner,” Mr. Palaniswamy said.
Other AIADMK leaders like Thalavai N. Sundaram, A. Tamil Magan Hussain, among others were present during the meeting.
