Reporter’s diary: Mummy’s rule ends anecdote on ‘Ammi’ in house

AIADMK minister Vijayabhaskar demonstrated his knack at story telling at the Assembly on Tuesday countering the arguments of fellow-physician Poongothai Aladi Aruna of the DMK with story narratives.

When the DMK legislator raised her concerns on TN’s status in the recent Niti Aayog report, Vijayabhaskar narrated the story of a scientist and a frog in comparison.

“There was a scientist doing research on frogs and their jumping ability,” he said. “To prove that they did respond to commands, he said ‘jump’ and the frog jumped. Then he chopped off a leg of the frog and said ‘jump’ again. The frog jumped but not as well. Then he chopped another leg and said ‘jump’. The frog still managed to hop but with difficulty. Eventually, the researcher chopped off all the legs of the frog and said ‘jump’. When the frog did not jump, he concluded his research stating that the frog became deaf when all four legs were chopped off and couldn’t take commands,” the Minister concluded comparising the scientist’s findings with Niti Aayog.

In another instance, the DMK MLAs who referred to the Tamil month of Aadi known for strong winds said that the AIADMK government was like a grinding stone (Ammi) and that in this windy month, they would move it little by little out of action referring to a common Tamil phrase ‘Adi mela Adi Vecha, Ammikallum nagarum, Aadi masakaathile Ammikallum parakkum (If you push little by little, even a grinding stone will move. In the windy Aadi month, the grinding stone will fly)’

In response, AIADMK minister D Jayakumar attracted pearls of laughter when he retorted stating that their leader Amma had probably foreseen this and gave free wet-grinders and mixers to Tamil people thus removing the grinding stone ‘Ammi’ out of the state. “Thus nothing can shake Amma’s aatchi in TN,” he said.