Home Minister must stop peddling old lies: A Raja

CHENNAI: In a rebuttal to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, DMK deputy general secretary and Lok Sabha MP A Raja on Friday said the BJP cannot win Tamil Nadu by invoking Tirukkural and that the Chief Minister will always emerge from Arivalayam (DMK headquarters), not Nagpur (RSS headquarters).

Responding to Shah’s remarks at the BJP’s booth committee conference in Tirunelveli, Raja said the Union Home Minister had “repeated old allegations” against the DMK government. “If Tiruvalluvar were alive, he would have criticised the Union government. The BJP is ruling by falsehood.

Amit Shah should read the kural, which says that living without lies is greater than other virtues. If he did so, he would stop spreading untruths in public,” Raja said in a statement.

Raja also hit out at the BJP on the Centre's taxation policy. “Tiruvalluvar compared excessive taxation to robbery. Shah, who defends the GST that burdens the people, is not qualified to speak of Tirukkural,” he said.

On Shah’s criticism of dynastic politics, Raja countered: “If the people vote, anyone can become Chief Minister. No one from outside the State can decide Tamil Nadu’s leadership,” he said.