Reporter's diary: Why so silent, Mr OPS?

CHENNAI: Neutral AIADMK followers are upset with O Panneerselvam for not toeing the lines of the party in the just concluded TN assembly. Inside the Assembly, whenever a ruling party accuses the Opposition, usually the latter would react and raise its voice.

But OPS’s silence in the Assembly when the DMK and its allies blamed the AIADMK leadership for the death of 13 protesters in Thoothukudi police firing, has left a lot of the party cadre fuming. Some feel that he should have stood with the AIADMK, as his silence looked like he wanted former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to be blamed entirely. The Aruna Jagadeesan commission’s report had not named OPS even once, after all!

After the report was tabled in the State Assembly, there was a debate in which the alliance parties blasted the AIADMK leadership.

Equating the Thoothukudi police firing with the Jallianwala Bagh incident, leaders of many parties demanded that EPS be charged with criminal conspiracy under Section 120 (B) of IPC.

All through the debate and accusations in the Assembly, OPS was unusually silent. Though OPS was part of the previous government and held the post of Deputy Chief Minister, his silence proved that he was side-lined in the government from the day he was accommodated into the party after his ‘dharmayudham’.

However, as usual, OPS known for his signature silent politics, has once again triggered a debate between the followers of AIADMK leaders MGR and Jayalalithaa.