REPORTER’S DIARY: EPS, haven’t you heard of stones and glass houses?

CHENNAI: There is an old adage saying ‘Do not focus on the speck in your brother’s eye while ignoring the log in your own eye’. This is what happened when former Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami visited some of the flood-affected areas in Chennai on Monday morning.

During his inspection in Mugilivakkam, he casually interacted with the residents and inquired the water-logging scenario there. An angry resident asked EPS, “You (AIADMK) ruled for 10 years. What were you doing in all these years?”

EPS and his supporters were shocked, while his party men in social media branded the resident, as a DMK sympathiser. But the fact remains that political leaders are vulnerable to public ire especially when the latter’s localities get inundated.

People were able to compare the water-logging scenes between DMK and AIADMK governments, and admit that there have been visible changes during this year’s monsoon period.

EPS was given very little room to explore the grey areas during flood. The leader of the Opposition could not gain much, and he was largely silent on the issue. However, it was only in the second spell of rainfall in the current monsoon season that he was able to pick a hole in flood mitigation works.

Perhaps one of his advisors must remind EPS of the oft-used saying: While pointing a finger at others, more fingers point at you.