The DMK has accused its former ally, the Congress, of employing underhand tactics to prevent INDIA bloc partners from winning assembly elections, only to later seek their backing during Lok Sabha polls. In a biting editorial published in its official organ, Murasoli, the DMK alleged that the Congress, with the blessings of Rahul Gandhi, had "backstabbed" the party during the recent Tamil Nadu assembly elections, triggering the collapse of their decades-old alliance.
The editorial mocked Gandhi for preaching unity at a recent INDIA bloc meeting, characterising it as a case of delayed realisation. According to the newspaper, his remarks came only after he released his speech from the June 11 meeting, a move prompted by mounting pressure on the Leader of the Opposition to publish the address on the Congress website whilst grievances from alliance constituents were being widely debated.
Murasoli questioned whether Gandhi himself was not the primary figure damaging opposition unity across various states. It claimed that the Left parties, the Samajwadi Party, and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had all heavily criticised his conduct for weakening the cohesion of the opposition. The paper highlighted remarks made at the meeting by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP John Brittas regarding Kerala. Whilst both the Congress and the CPI(M) are traditional rivals who fought a direct contest in the April state elections without objection, Gandhi’s campaign rhetoric was branded as absurd. During the campaign, he had questioned why Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not arrested Pinarayi Vijayan, implying a secret deal existed between the two—a charge the CPI(M) took very seriously.
According to the editorial, Brittas accused Gandhi of spreading blatant lies during the Kerala campaign and stated that the Left did not require a certificate from the Congress to prove its anti-BJP credentials. The paper also noted CPI general secretary D Raja’s reaction to Gandhi’s assertion that "the Left is no longer the Left," which Raja dismissed as a sign of political immaturity. While Gandhi defended his stance by arguing that the Left government had brought the Adani conglomerate to Kerala, the Left countered by pointing out that it was originally the Congress that introduced the business group to the state.
The DMK daily further cited Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, who reportedly described the exit of both the DMK and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from the INDIA bloc as a severe setback that required serious re-examination. Similarly, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was said to have raised suspicions over potential covert understandings between Congress and BJP leaders in Bihar, noting that despite repeatedly raising the issue with Congress leadership, no corrective action was taken.
Addressing Gandhi's comment that he could not bring himself to "hug" the veteran Marxist leader Pinarayi Vijayan, the editorial pointedly asked whether he was not the very same person who had hugged Modi in Parliament. It cited Marxist leader Baby as stating that nobody had asked Gandhi to hug Vijayan, but rather to stop acting as an assistant to the Enforcement Directorate and the Modi government by demanding the arrest of opposition figures.
Against the backdrop of the Congress abandoning the DMK-led alliance to join the ruling TVK in Tamil Nadu, Murasoli asserted that the betrayal occurred with Gandhi's full blessing. It argued that he was only now attempting to play the peacemaker because the leader of the party the Congress had newly aligned with had publicly distanced himself from the national coalition.
The editorial concluded that the dominance of anti-Congress sentiment over anti-BJP rhetoric at a meeting explicitly convened to oppose the ruling government was a direct result of Gandhi's perceived immaturity and lack of integrity. Dismissing Gandhi’s philosophical comparison that the Congress must swallow criticism the way Lord Shiva drank poison, the paper retorted that in the mythological tale, Shiva did not create the poison himself, asking who within the alliance was responsible for churning out venom instead of nectar.
Also read: Blow to dreams of millions: Rahul on paper leaks
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