The Goods and Services Tax (GST) is another name for usury and it resembles tax collection during the British Raj, said DMK president M.K. Stalin during a virtual address to Tiruppur district party functionaries on Sunday.
“Tiruppur is an example of [the consequences of] the wrong economic policies of the Central government,” he said. GST exacerbated the condition of industries that were already affected by demonetisation in 2016. It led to a downturn in exports and manufacturing, Mr. Stalin said. From being known as “dollar city” because of the foreign exchange it generated through exports, Tiruppur has now become “dull city” as exports have been further hit due to COVID-19, he said.
If elected to power, the DMK will form a committee comprising experts from various businesses and will implement their suggestions for Tiruppur, he said.
Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Ministers S.P. Velumani, Udumalai K. Radhakrishnan, K.A. Sengottaiyan, P. Thangamani and K.C. Karuppannan are all from the Kongu region, Mr. Stalin said. “In the last 10 years, they could have introduced many projects for the region, but have they done so?” The DMK leader also levelled allegations of corruption against the Ministers.
Regarding the Athikadavu-Avinashi water supply project, he said the previous AIADMK governments had not completed the project, and Mr. Palaniswami was now taking credit for having implemented the project. He accused Mr. Palaniswami of betraying farmers by supporting the three farm laws introduced recently by the Central government.
He said construction works for several flyovers and a ring road within the limits of the Tiruppur Corporation were started when the DMK was in power, but were stalled by the AIADMK government, leading to traffic congestions in the city. The long-pending ESI Hospital too had not been established in Tiruppur yet, he said. Mr. Stalin asked all district units of the party to work together to ensure the DMK’s victory in the Assembly election.
Sanskrit news bulletin
In a separate statement, Mr. Stalin urged the Centre to change its decision to telecast a Sanskrit news bulletin on Doordarshan Podhigai and other regional television channels, contending that it was a cultural invasion on people who spoke different languages.
Recalling a circular issued to all regional directors of Doordarshan, Mr. Stalin said besides regular news, they had been asked to telecast the weekend Sanskrit news bulletin in full.
“Regional centres telecast news in regional languages and English. The decision of the Centre to introduce news in Sanskrit, spoken by just 15,000 people, is a cultural invasion through information technology,” he said.
He said India was a banyan tree, representing pluralism, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi was trying to chop it by imposing Hindi and Sanskrit.
Urging the Prime Minister to give up the plan, Mr. Stalin threatened to launch a protest, similar to the agitations that broke out when Hindi was imposed.
“The DMK broke television sets to express its opposition to Hindi. Similar protests will put an end to the arrogance of the Centre,” he said.
PMK founder S. Ramadoss said, “National news is being presented in English. Sanskrit news will not have national news. Therefore, there is no need for people in other States to watch Sanskrit news. In such a scenario, the decision to force regional channels to telecast Sanskrit news is imposition of the language.”
He added that this decision would be perceived “as an attempt to impose Sanskrit on those who speak non-Sanskrit languages”.