Law Minister C.Ve. Shanmugam on Wednesday mounted a scathing attack on the DMK, charging that the party had no locus standi to say anything about corruption since it held the dubious distinction of introducing corruption in to the country.
Reacting to the “corruption list” submitted by DMK president M.K. Stalin to Governor Banwarilal Purohit, he said that the DMK which could not prove the corruption charges it had earlier levelled against the AIADMK government had now hurriedly met the Governor and levelled similar charges.
Reading out the list of cases registered against former Ministers, Members of Parliament and sitting Legislators of the DMK, he said that as many as 368 cases were pending. “As many as 22 former Ministers of the DMK were facing 101 cases on charges of corruption, land grabbing and cheating. On the contrary, we have nothing to fear.”
“The DMK has filed cases against the AIADMK in various courts and we will face them. The investigation will only establish that the AIADMK is not involved in any case of corruption,” Mr. Shanmugam told reporters.
Referring to the DMK’s allegations of huge corruption in award of government tenders to private companies for laying fibre optic cables in the State, the Minister said that the tender bids were yet to be opened and no participant in the bidding process had challenged the process.
The DMK had filed a petition in the Madras High Court alleging irregularities purely out of political vendetta and keeping in mind the upcoming Assembly elections.
Replying to a question on the BJP vice-president K. Annamalai’s recent remark that the State government was seeking to disburse “stolen money” to the people, he hit back and questioned the source of funds of ₹6,000 distributed by the party to farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme.