NEW DELHI, Dec 6
DMK’s Dharmapuri MP DNV Senthilkumar Wednesday expressed regret over his remarks in Lok Sabha on Hindi-speaking states and said he is withdrawing them.
This came as the controversy over Tuesday’s remarks — that were expunged later that same day — continued Wednesday with BJP ministers repeatedly bringing them up and senior DMK leader TR Baalu apologising in the House.
Senthilkumar, who had apologised on X Tuesday, said in Lok Sabha: “The statement made by me yesterday inadvertently, if it had hurt the sentiments of the members and sections of the people, I would like to withdraw it. I request the words to be expunged and I express my regret.”
Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, who was chairing the proceedings, told Senthilkumar: “It is already expunged but you should regret it. Now it is over.”
Earlier in the day, Information Minister Anurag Thakur accused the Congress and its allies of trying to divide India on caste and regional lines. Speaking to reporters, Thakur questioned the silence of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on the issue, asking if the remarks had their sanction.
Senthilkumar had referred to the recent Assembly election results as reflective of the “north-south divide” after the BJP trounced the Congress in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and the Congress won in Telangana.
Baalu said on the floor of Lok Sabha during Zero Hour that the DMK, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, had taken a serious view of the matter and warned the member against making such statements again. He added that Senthilkumar would apologise if the House wished him to.
There were fireworks on the matter even in the Question Hour, when the Speaker called upon Baalu to ask his question. As Baalu rose, Union Ministers Pralhad Joshi and Piyush Goyal demanded an apology from him.
“He should apologise. A leader of his party has made this kind of a statement. How will the House function? Is this the way that anyone will say anything in the House and walk away?”
Baalu said he should not be interrupted and that it was his right to ask questions. “Rahul Gandhi made a statement when he lost in Amethi about dividing India into north and south,” Joshi shot back. The House was adjourned amid the din.
Earlier, too, when Congress MP Manickam Tagore sought to know, in the context of the National Food Security Act of 2013, whether the government could share details of states where the maximum number of labourers migrated for work, Goyal replied: “We don’t divide people of the country. Their mindset is visible in their daily statements. Sometimes they divide the country on grounds of north and south India, and sometimes on caste grounds. PM Modi has united the country on the idea of one nation, one ration card. We do not link the ration card to one shop in one locality but wherever in the country the person goes. And one doesn’t have to roam around with the ration card in one’s pocket any longer; one’s thumb is one’s ration card. Our Aadhar number is our identity… Please don’t talk about migration; please don’t try to divide the country.”
Thakur accused the Congress of hatching a conspiracy to insult Indian culture and identity, instead of analysing the reasons for its defeat in the elections. “They keep blaming EVMs and insult Sanatan Dharma, Hindus and Hindu culture,” he said. Thakur said that even during the election campaign, Congress raised casteism and religion, and post drubbing in elections, is now resorting to fanning a north-south divide.
“What is the Congress’s compulsion to stick with the DMK which has been insulting Hindi, Hindus and Sanatana Dharma,” Thakur said, also making a mention of DMK’s Udayanidhi Stalin’s earlier remarks of insulting Sanatan Dharma.
The BJP leader also noted the chief minister-designate of Telangana A Revanth Reddy commenting that his “Telangana DNA” was better than the Bihar DNA of his rivals.
