NEW DELHI, june 27
With the ruling DMK and its allies cornering the AIADMK over its studied silence on the Sangh Parivar debunking Dravidian icons (Periyar and Annadurai), a rattled AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Friday distanced himself from the controversy and said the party would not disown the great legacy of Anna as it continues to run in their blood.
“Not even for a moment, we will give up our towering stalwart Anna, as his name is not only etched in the party and its flag, but his legacy too continues to run in our blood,” EPS said in a social media post, reacting to Chief Minister MK Stalin’s charge that the AIADMK which had pledged the party to the BJP and might even mortgage the state to the saffron party.
The AIADMK has been at the receiving end and its alliance with the BJP has come under strain after the screening of a video, debunking Dravidian iconoclast, rationalist, and social-justice crusader Periyar E V Ramasamy and DMK founder C N Annadurai, at the Murugan conference organised by the Hindu Munnani (Hindu Front), an RSS affiliate.
Besides BJP leaders and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, few AIADMK leaders too were on the dais when it was screened.
Stalin had accused the AIADMK of having its name after Anna but remaining beholden to the saffron camp. “The crowd at the helm of the AIADMK, bearing the name of Anna, remained mute spectators when the video ridiculing the Dravidian icon was screened in their presence. We should not allow them to mortgage Tamil Nadu as they have done for their party,” the Chief Minister fumed at a government function at Tirupattur.
Rejecting the Chief Minister’s criticism, EPS shot back asking whether “Stalin son of late DMK leader and former Chief Minister Karunanidhi has the competence to even utter Anna’s name.”
EPS also recalled that the late MG Ramachandran launched the AIADMK since the DMK under Karunanidhi had undermined Anna’s vision and policies by making it a family fiefdom. Even now, the DMK government of Stalin is continuing the same and as such he need not offer lessons on Periyar and Anna.
Reminding the DMK that it was part of the BJP-led Union Government between 1999 – 2004, EPS said “It was only then that the state’s rights were mortgaged.” Further, he made a poll promise to retrieve the lost rights of the state from Cauvery to Katchatheevu (the rocky islet ceded to Sri Lanka in lieu of the resource-rich Wadge Bank below Kanniyakumari) and steer Tamil Nadu on the path of development.
