AIADMK gave a lame excuse to walk out for political reasons: Thennarasu

CHENNAI: Principal Opposition party AIADMK found itself in a spot after it walked out of the House in condemnation of the DMK government attempting to remove former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's name from the Fisheries University. However, the amended bill was only for naming it after the former AIADMK CM.

Speaking to reporters outside the Assembly, State Finance and Power Minister Thangam Thennarasu said the AIADMK walked out of the House over a lame excuse to avoid being present when the Bill was passed.

"The lame excuse given by them before walking out was that former CM J Jayalalithaa's name was dropped from the Tamil Nadu Fisheries University Bill tabled in the Assembly. Fisheries Minister Anitha Radhakrishnan exposed the lie in the assembly itself," he said, adding that the TN Fisheries University was formed in 2012.

"On January 9, 2020, an amendment bill was adopted to name the university after Jayalalithaa during the Edappadi Palaniswami government. However, the Governor did give his consent. AIADMK and Edappadi, who were in power for the next one year did not take any steps to get the consent. After DMK came to power, it brought a bill in April this year to amend the original act to empower the state government to appoint a vice-chancellor. Today, we re-adopted both the bills to rename the university after Jayalalithaa and also to empower the government to appoint VCs," he said.

Thennarasu noted that Chief Minister MK Stalin without any political vendetta has re-adopted the Bills to rename the university in Jayalalithaa's name which was returned by the Governor.

"AIADMK should have appreciated the State government for the Bill. But without even knowing what was in the bill, the AIADMK walked out by giving lame reasons for political reasons. This exposed the secret relationship of AIADMK and BJP," the Minister said.

In the Assembly, Leader of the House and Water Resource Minister Duraimurugan said that the AIADMK walked out because opposing the Governor would be construed as opposing Modi.

Welcoming the resolution to readopt the 10 bills, former AIADMK coordinator O Panneerselvam criticised EPS and the AIADMK for walking out of the assembly without even knowing that the (fisheries university) bill was readopted.

Asked about the Governor's relationship with the State government, OPS replied that for the betterment of the people, there should be a smooth relationship between the government and the governor.