Chennai: DMK president M K Stalin has called upon all Opposition leaders to come together to defeat the Modi-led BJP government at the Centre, calling it a second independence movement.
Speaking at the massive Opposition rally organised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata, Stalin said Modi, who had been saying that there was no Opposition in India, was now afraid of the coming together of Opposition leaders. In all, 22 leaders from various parties, including the Congress, have come together for the meeting being held in Brigade Parade Ground right now.
The DMK president began his speech in Bengali and went on to speak in Tamil from a prepared text. His speech was translated into Bengali for the thousands of people who had been gathering from early morning to hear the leaders from all over the country speak at the meeting.
He used the occasion to slam Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his proclamation that his was a corruption-free rule. Was not the Rafale deal the height of corruption, asked Stalin.
Listing out other issues, he said even demonetisation was meant to help one particular individual, and brought it under the list of corruption charges.
Modi’s government is not a government for the people but for corporate entities, charged Stalin. The price rise in the country in the four years of his rule is the only achievement of the BJP government, he said.
Just as power is concentrated in one place in the government, so is corruption, was Stalin’s scathing attack on Modi.
In his appeal to the leaders of other parties, he said just as there is unity in diversity, we, who are from different States, should come together to bring down the BJP government.
Striking a personal note, Stalin said Modi is afraid of some people and one such person was the iron lady of West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He recalled that late DMK president and his father, ‘Kalaignar’ (M Karunanidhi), and Mamata respected each other.