M Karunanidhi: Don’t let Tamil Nadu become Amma Nadu

Ridiculing AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa for her rhetoric “I am by the people and for the people,”  the nonagenarian leader said that it should have been: “I am for me and I am for Sasikala and the ilk.” 

Coming down heavily on Jayalalithaa for being ‘self-assertive’ in her governance, he said that if by chance AIADMK was voted back to power Jayalalithaa would change the name of Tamil Nadu as ‘Amma Nadu’ and announce the same under Rule 110. 

“She increased milk price, bus fare and power tariff and reasoned that under the DMK government the public debt has increased but the fact is that the then Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee appreciated the performance of DMK government,” Karunanidhi said in a statement.

According to him, she also scrapped free power to farmers extended by the DMK government and concentrated more on raising revenue from TASMAC sales. “Despite all these ‘measures’, various reports have pointed out that the financial health of the state is bad,” he said and added that the public debt had crossed Rs.4 lakh crore. 

The DMK chief also listed the promises that were not fulfilled by Jayalalithaa such as aero park in southern Tamil Nadu and mono rail projects, among others. 

Replying to her charges against DMK on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, Karunanidhi said that the people had not forgotten the resolution passed by Jayalalithaa in the assembly in 2002 demanding the Sri Lankan government to arrest LTTE leader V Prabhakaran and hand him over to the Indian government. 

On her repeated attacks on ‘family rule’, DMK chief sought to know who Sasikala, Ilavarasi, Sudhakaran, Dinakaran, Divakaran and Ravanan were. “Jayalalithaa does not have any locus standi to comment on family rule,” he added.