DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has questioned Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement in Parliament over the alleged attack on the late CM J Jayalalithaa in 1989 in the state Assembly, drawing strong rebuke from AIADMK leader Edappadi K Palaniswami. Speaking during the debate on the no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha on August 10, Sitharaman had sought to remind DMK MP Kanimozhi, following her speech on the Manipur issue, about the incident which happened on March 25, 1989 in the Tamil Nadu Assembly when the then Leader of Opposition (LoP) Jayalalitha’s saree was pulled. “It is a very sacred sabha, the Leader of the Opposition Jayalalitha’s saree was pulled in in the assembly. Her saree was pulled and the DMK members sitting there heckled her, laughed at her and made fun of her…” she said. Stalin, in an interview to a daily, has refuted the FM’s allegations, saying “everyone present in the Assembly knew it was a drama enacted by herself,” referring to the late Jayalalithaa.
