Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned jittery over the Congress election manifesto which contains a slew of promises, DMK president M.K. Stalin said in Karur on Friday. Mr. Modi was making false statements out of fear of defeat, he added.
Addressing a well-attended public meeting at Thirumanilaiyur in support of the Congress candidate for Karur constituency, S.Jothimani, Mr.Stalin said the Congress manifesto was in sync with the DMK’s promises in the true spirit of federalism and State autonomy as envisioned by former Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi.
Tamil Nadu had been seeking exemption from NEET and the Congress has promised to do away with it. The party had also promised to bring out a separate budget for agriculture, which Mr.Stalin said, would bring to an end farmers’ suicides in the State.
The Congress party which had promised waiver of farm loans prior to the assembly elections in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh a few months ago had implemented them a couple of days after it came to power, Mr. Stalin said recalling a similar measure taken by the DMK after it emerged victorious in 2006. to drive home the seriousness with which both the parties implemented their poll promises.
The earlier Congress-headed United Progressive Alliance government under the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had waived farm loans to the tune of ₹60,000 crore, he said. He claimed that the people of the State by and large felt happy over the promises made by the DMK in its recent poll manifesto.
Heeding representations from the farmers of the Kongu region, he said the DMK had included in its manifesto that jewel loans taken by farmers up to five sovereigns from banks and cooperative institutions would be waived along with interest.
Mr. Modi, who came to power by making tall promises in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, failed to fulfil them. Mr. Stalin accused AIADMK propaganda secretary and Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha M.Thambi Durai, who is seeking re-election from Karur, of singing a different tune now after strongly criticising the BJP government, especially its interim Budget, a few months ago.
The DMK leader reiterated his charge that the searches conducted by the Income Tax department in Vellore and election officials in Thoothukudi on the premises of DMK leaders were part of a conspiracy to postpone the byelections in four Assembly constituencies in the two districts to protect the AIADMK government, which was surviving on a thin majority. “But once [Congress president] Rahul Gandhi comes to power at the Centre, would the AIADMK regime continue for a minute in the State?” he wondered.
Mr. Stalin again asked whether raids would be conducted at the houses of Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam or Prime Minister Narendra Modi, if he were to complain that crores of money have been stashed on their premises.