Annamalai’s barbs help strengthen Congress in Tamil Nadu, says TNCC chief

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) president K Selvaperunthagai on Friday claimed that the Grand Old Party gets strengthened whenever the BJP state unit president K Annamalai hits out at them.

Addressing the media in Krishnagiri, Selvaperunthagai said, “I thank Annamalai for strengthening the Congress party.” Both the leaders were on a warpath recently after Annamalai called the Congress leader a ‘history-sheeter.’

“It’s common for BJP leaders, predominantly in northern states, to make personal attacks on political leaders. They have initiated this culture in Tamil Nadu also. Besides verbal innuendos, they are capable of resorting to physical attacks,” he said citing mob lynching incidents pretty common in the north, especially BJP-ruled states.

Demanding to stop making slanderous remarks on former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, the Congress leader hailed the DMK patriarch as a leader who implemented various welfare schemes for Tamil Nadu. “After Congress stalwart K Kamaraj, it was Karunanidhi, who brought out several landmark schemes for the State,” he said.

Claiming that murder and robbery incidents have come down in the last three years of DMK’s rule as compared to ten years of the previous AIADMK regime, Selvaperunthagai however urged the State government to take measures to further curtail the crime rate.

The problem lies with the smuggling of narcotics into Tamil Nadu from Gujarat, which should be prevented by the Union government, the TNCC chief said. "The state government should also curb the movement of narcotics with an iron fist. The intelligence wing in each district should be headed by a cop in the rank of a DSP instead of an inspector to ensure proper tracking of anti-social elements,” he said.

Selvaperunthagai said TNCC is ready for a ‘Gandhian protest’ to get water from Karnataka.