Chennai, June 10:
Speaking in different voices, the prinicpal opposition DMK on Tuesday denied that it was for toppling the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government clarifying that party president and former Chief Minister MK Stalin’s remarks on the longevity of the Vijay Ministry had been misrepresented.
A day after Stalin, raising doubts as to whether the government would last not six months but three months, evoking sharp criticism from the DMK’s former allies, who are now with the TVK, the DMK has chosen to come out with a clarification.
In a statement released to the media, former minister and senior DMK leader Thangam Thennarasu said, “What Stalin said has been misrepresented as though he had predicted that the government would not last even for three months and would fall. What he had said was that the government’s functioning appeared as though it would last not six months but three months.”
Despite Stalin having maintained that the DMK would not criticise the new administration under Vijay for six months, the situation has become so bad that it forced him to make those observations, he added.
“Toppling the government is neither the intent of our party president, nor has he said so,” Thennarasu explained.
“Though a month has passed since the new government took over, the print and electronic media is full of news about murders, dacoities, sexual violence and drug abuse. Worse, TVK members themselves are involved in crimes. While a woman TVK worker was sexually assaulted by her own party colleagues, no action has been taken either against the culprits or the party legislator who protected them. Ironically, the woman had been expelled from the party, exposing the true colours of the TVK claiming to be the ‘force of purity’,” he said.
The CPI(M), a former ally of the DMK and offering outside support to the VIjay regime, has taken strong exception to the Dravidian major’s charade against the new government.
Party state secretary P Shanmugam has said that the new government should be allowed time. Further, he made it clear that the Marxist party is no longer with the DMK and that the Secular Progressive Alliance headed by DMK does not exist any more, since most of the allies, barring a few minor ones, have left it. Leaders of other parties have also criticised Stalin for being a doomsday prophet.
It may be recalled that Stalin had on Sunday questioned the stability of the ruling TVK headed by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay and wondered whether it will last at least three months.
Still yet to recover from the shocking defeat the hustings and his own reverse at his stronghold Kolathur Assembly segment in the city, Stalin said there was question mark over the present dispensation and wondered whether it would last for three months.
Speaking at an event in which senior VCK funtionary and former Cheyyur Legislator Panayur M Babu had quit the party and joined the DMK in his presence, he said “I had earlier said that I will not comment about it for six months”.
Asserting that the TVK government was functioning on DMK’s patronage, Stalin recalled his earlier remark when the Vijay government assumed office–with the support of DMK allies like Congress, VCK, CPI, CPI-M and IUML and won the confidence vote in the Assembly–that he would not talk about this regime for six months. “When this government assumed office, we said we would refrain from criticism for six months. But now, people themselves are wondering whether this government can survive even three months,” he added.
But there has been a lingering fear whether a situation would come wherein he wanted to talk about it before six months. And that situation has come. Many people are talking about it. Criticisms are coming and questions had arose whether it would last for at least three months, he said, while addressing the DMK cadres at party headquarters “Anna Arivalayam’ here after admitting Babu in the party fold.
“Not six months, not five months, not four months… the (Vijay) government is running today with the question mark of whether it will last at least three months”, the former CM said.