"Sattre vilagi irum, pillaai"
On the campaign trail from the DMK-led alliance, the Congress' number one campaigner, P Chidambaram was at his trailblazing best in his just-concluded speech in Cuddalore. The Finance Minister reeled out statistics to rubbish the TN Government's claims that the Centre was least helpful when calamity struck the state.
Mr. Chidambaram stated that a sum of Rs. 5025 crores had been allocated for the state, of which a major portion still remains unclaimed. For example, the State Government was to have claimed reimbursements for houses built for tsunami victims. Yet, not a penny has been claimed so far. The FM opined that this implied that the Jayalalithaa government hadn't built a single house to rehabilitate a single victim.
Quoting from Gopalakrishna Bharati's Nandanaar Charitram, the FM had just four words for the incumbents -- sattre vilagi irum, pillaai! (According to Nandanaar Charitram, Nandanaar, a person born of a low caste, was refused admission into a Siva temple. Overcome with grief, he stood outside the shrine to catch a glimpse of Lord Siva. However his view was obstructed by the Nandi, and Nandanaar sang, requesting to Nandi to stay aside to help him get an unobstructed view.) Mr. Chidambaram mentioned that Amma's government was like a Nandi which obstructed the implementation of any good plans formulated for Tamil Nadu at the Centre.
He also questioned the logic behind the ADMK's promise of 10 kilos of free rice, and wondered how Mr. Vaiko who threw tantrums at the DMK's election promise of rice at Rs 2 per kg, suddenly found logic in the ADMK's claims.
posted by Vijay Krishna Narayanan @ 9:41 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Good point. But what would be your answer to DMK asking the government, "Why wait for the elections to announce 10 kgs of free rice?" Isn't that votebank politics?
I'm not one to comment on whether the funds were actually asked for or disbursed. But one must appreciate the Government's handling of the tsunami crisis.
What is evident though is Ms. Jayalalithaa wanting to be the ONLY benefactress of the people of this state. When she wants it done, Sethusamudram is good. But when TR Baalu does it, it becomes bad? Same for the tsunami relief efforts.
It's all very easy to sweep things under the carpet by claiming that this is the way politics is. The State Government's exclusivity has hit the state, even in cases where the Centre has been ready to help. Come, deny that...
I'm sorry, maybe you are daydreaming. At least with the DMK and the ADMK, one party opposes what the other party says. Within the TN Congress, there are 101 factions. And each opposes what any other faction says.
In fairness to PC, he has rebutted JJ on several occasions on both the Tsunami Relief n Desalination Plant. Manlion isnt right in saying that PC is doing it only now. It is perhaps the nth time PC has done it. It has come into focus now because of the elections. Reg. TN Congress, less said the better. It is a Party with more `leaders' than `workers' as everybody invariably is a past President of TNCC or at least Member of some Committee or the other. Who is is going to work for the Party if everybody wants to be only a Leader. It is like saying `everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die'
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