Launching a blistering attack on the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called the Dravidian party an ‘enemy’ of the state’s future and charged it with harbouring hatred towards the country, its culture and heritage.
Addressing a well-attended Bharatiya Janata Party public meeting, he said the earlier UPA regime, of which the DMK was a key constituent, did little for the development of Kanyakumari and asserted that development works, including in the road sector, have been fast tracked after the NDA came to power in 2014.
He lashed out at the opposition INDIA bloc and said all it had to show was “scams” running to several crores of rupees, and said his party-led NDA had public initiatives as achievements to boast of.
“The history of the DMK and Congress is loot. They want to come to power to loot the people. On one side is the BJP’s welfare schemes, on the other (in the INDIA bloc) is the scams of crores of rupees. We gave optical fibre, 5G and other digital initiatives. INDI alliance has 2G scam,” he said.
The DMK was the “biggest beneficiary” of the 2G scam, in which party leader and former Telecom Minister A Raja was implicated but later acquitted by a court.
Taking on the ruling party in Tamil Nadu, Modi indicated the DMK did little for the people of the district, despite being in power at the Centre as part of the Congress-led UPA in the past.
Modi said the ruling DMK “tried to ban the watching” of the consecration of the Shri Ram Temple in Ayodhya in January this year, apparently referring to some public screenings in Tamil Nadu and added the Supreme Court later pulled up the state government over the matter.
He further slammed the Congress and the DMK for their ‘silence’ when the bull taming sport ‘jallikattu’ was banned earlier.
Reiterating his commitment for the people of Tamil Nadu, he recalled his government earlier “saving” five fishermen from the state on death row in Sri Lanka.
All sorts of methods— including diplomatic, were taken and they were saved from the noose, the PM added.
Continuing to be soft towards Tamil Nadu’s main opposition AIADMK, he said people knew how the DMK treated late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and added that such a culture continued even today and that crimes against women were on the rise in the state.
“When we brought the reservation bill for women in Parliament, neither Congress nor DMK supported it. DMK and Congress are both anti-women,” he said.
People of Tamil Nadu will “crush” the arrogance of the DMK and the INDIA bloc, he said.
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