Alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was resorting to coercive tactics to threaten the State government and others, DMK leader M.K. Stalin on Monday asserted that the saffron party would never be able to take root in Tamil Nadu, the birthplace of the Dravidian movement.
Speaking on the sidelines of the wedding of former Rajya Sabha MP S. Thangavelu’s son at Sankarankovil, Mr. Stalin claimed that the Income Tax department had seized huge amounts of cash, valuables as well as incriminating documents proving corruption, when it conducted searches at the premises of former Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohana Rao, businessman ‘Karur’ Anbunathan, mining baron Sekar Reddy and Health Minister C. Vijaya Baskar. He added that one of the documents recovered during the raids showed the distribution of ₹89 crore to the voters of the R.K. Nagar Assembly constituency.
“However, no official announcement was made by the Income Tax officials about the cash, valuables and documents seized during the raids. There was no follow-up action after these raids. And, we witnessed a mega raid by the I-T officials over the past few days, but no proper announcement by an appropriate authority has been made so far about the action taken against those who have illegally amassed wealth,” he said.
“So, we have to conclude that the BJP government at the Centre is terrorising the spineless State government and others through these raids, with the objective of taking root in the State. I am sure that the BJP can never take root in Tamil Nadu, the birthplace of the Dravidian movement,” Mr. Stalin said.
‘People fed up’
The DMK leader alleged that the BJP-led Union government, which was functioning in accordance with the principles of a religion, had curbed the rights of the State by introducing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for admission to medical colleges.Mr. Stalin contended that the people of Tamil Nadu were against the continuation of the present regime led by Edappadi K. Palaniswami, due to widespread corruption and lack of development. “Though this government’s actual tenure will end only after three years, the people of Tamil Nadu don’t want this corrupt administration to continue for even three minutes. Hence, they ask me when we would put an end to this government,” he said.