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NT Bureau
Chennai, July 28:

        The PMK, lead by its irrepressible supremo Dr S Ramadoss, has been taking potshots at the DMK government for quite some time now. But now it seems to have upped the ante dramatically, and come out with a sweeping charge against the whole of Dravidian parties. 'The Dravidian parties have achieved nothing big in the State,' a fire and brimstone Ramadoss has been quoted as saying in an interview to the weekly Tehelka.

        Not stopping at that, Ramadoss further said that because of them (the Dravidian parties), the State was floating in liquor today. 'I don't think they have achieved anything big. Had they wanted to, they could have eradicated poverty. Our literacy levels would have been on par with Kerala had they focused more on education. It was K Kamaraj (former Congress CM) who opened up schools in villages. Instead, they favoured private players in education and started selling liquor,' Ramadoss said in the interview. This is by far the most stinging of his comments on the DMK and its much-touted legacy.

        Though Ramadoss is happy that they (the PMK) made the DMK go back on several proposals, he is still upset on the liquor policy of the government. 'For a decade, we have been fighting for this. The DMK government argues that illicit liquor would be rampant if prohibition is enforced. We won't buy that argument.'

        The PMK chief is however very clear that he would continue to support the DMK. 'In politics, you can't predict anything. But as far as the PMK is concerned, we will continue to support the DMK government,' he said In his opinion Karunanidhi emerged a better alliance partner than the AIADMK. 'If I want to talk to Karunanidhi, I can talk to him now (on phone). If I want to meet him personally, he would give me an appointment tomorrow. He would do it not just for me but for all the alliance leaders. With Jayalalithaa, it would take two weeks just to speak to her on the phone'.

        To a question on the PMK's goal of capturing power in 2011, Ramadoss replied that the DMK got only 15 seats in the 1957 polls and 50 in 1962. 'Only in 1967, they could become the ruling party — that too by forging an alliance. A political party grows by winning people's confidence.'

        Only recently, M Karunanidhi had talked of that the DMK would no longer brook any criticism from the PMK. But now Ramadoss has badmouthed the entire Dravidian movment. So it is only logical to expect the retaliation from the DMK to be fittingly strong.