Chennai, Mar 27 (UNI) Amid furious outrage over the
derogatory and uncivilised remarks made by former
Union Minister and DMK Lok Sabha member A Raja
against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K
Palaniswami, Opposition DMK President M K Stalin
on Saturday issued a stern warning to party members
urging them to follow the tradition and uphold the
dignity during election campaigns.
In a statement here, without making any direct
reference to Mr Raja's uncultured remarks during
campaigning at Thousand Lights constituency in the
city yesterday, Mr Stalin urged the party members
to maintain the tradition and dignity of the party in
mind during electioneering.
Stating that the DMk will not allow or accept such
remarks, he urged the members to follow late DMK
Patriarch and former CM C N Annadurai's principle
of duty, dignity and discpline while addressing the
voters.
Apart from Mr Raja, Mr Stalin's statement is also
seen as a warning to party member Dindigul I Leoni’s
sexist comments against women during the poll
campaign.
“Party members, I request you to keep the tradition
and dignity of the party in mind while campaigning
and everyone should remember that before victory,
the route for victory is also important.”
He also said, while campaigning, party members should
not utter undignified remarks out of impulsive urge and
said they should stop making such comments, which
was not acceptable to the party.
“Remember the words of Anna, duty-dignity-discipline.
Among these three things dignity should be the first
thing the speakers should follow. Since the victory
of the DMK has been decided by the people, some
forces try to cut and edit visuals to make them sound
wrong as an attempt to prevent the victory and now
they are doing the same thing out of fear of losing
the polls,” he said, in a veiled reference to AIADMK.
He urged the party members to carefully use the words
so that any attempts by miscreants will not succeed.
In an apparent reference to the remarks of Leoni
and Mr Raja, DMK Women’s Wing Secretary and Lok
Sabha MP Kanimozhi tweeted, “No matter whom the
political party leader is, it’s condemnable to demean
and criticise women in a personal way. If everyone
keeps this in their minds then it’s good for society.
That is the Dravidian movement and social justice
endorsed by Periyar.”
First DMK member and anchor Dindigul Leoni made a
sexist and distasteful comment, which body-shamed
women, saying the hips of women have become like
barrels since they are drinking the milk from foreign
cows in a bid to stress his point to drink the milk of
native breed cows.
Even as the controversy over Leoni's remarks are
yet to die down, Raja virtually added fuel to the
fire with a derogatory comment against the Chief
Minister while comparing his political journey with
Stalin and said while his leader was born out of a
rightful marriage after 300 days Mr Palaniswami, who
did not reach any heights in public life until former
leader J Jayalalithaa’s death, was born prematurely
out of an illicit affair in politics.”
As a furious AIADMK members staged a protest, lodged
a police complaint and also with the Chief Electoral
Officer Satyabrata Sahoo seeking stringent against
Raja for electoral offences and under IPC, Raja
in a video statement said his remarks were cut,
distorted and that he had never had such intentions
to demean the Chief Minister.
AIADMK's ally and PMK Founder Dr S Ramadoss
also condemned the remarks of Raja, who had also
allegedly stated that Stalin’s slipper is worth one rupee
more than Mr Palaniswami, besides insulting
Mr Palaniswami’s late mother in a disgusting manner.
UNI GV 2004