Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday denied any injustice to Tamil Nadu by the Centre as claimed by M K Stalin over fund allocation and described as diversionary attempts, the Chief Minister raking up the delimitation issue.
Refuting Stalin’s claims, Shah said the Narendra Modi government has provided Rs 5,08,337 lakh crore to the state during the 2014-24 period.
Also, he accused Stalin of spreading a misinformation campaign on the delimitation exercise. Seeking to put to rest speculation on the subject, he asserted no southern state including Tamil Nadu would see a reduction in the Parliamentary representation when delimitation will be done on pro-rata basis.
Stalin has said the the delimitation exercise will impact the southern states, especially Tamil Nadu in the wake of them successfully implementing the family planning programme. He has claimed Tamil Nadu stands to lose 8 out of the 39 Lok Sabha seats due to delimitation and has convened an all-party meeting on March 5 to discuss the matter.
Lashing out at the ruling DMK dispensation on the ‘failure’ of law and order in the state, Shah, speaking after inaugurating the BJP party office here, said “the anti-national tendency is at all-time high in Tamil Nadu.”
“Tamil Nadu government provided security during the last journey of 1998 bomb blast accused and mastermind (SA Basha),” the Home Minister said.
He claimed the drug mafia enjoyed a free hand in selling drugs in the state and that illegal mining mafia was making politics corrupt here.
“All the leaders of DMK have got Master’s degree in corruption. One leader is involved in a cash-for-job scam, another in money laundering case, third in a disproportionate wealth case, fourth in coal scam and the fifth was involved in Rs 6,000 crore CRIDP scam. It seems the DMK has selected the corrupt through the party’s members drive,” he charged at the event.
While the people of the state were anguished over a number of issues, “the CM and his son (Udhayanidhi) have taken up some issue to divert public attention.”
“They are going to do a meeting on delimitation saying we won’t allow any injustice to south,” Shah said about the March 5 all-party meeting convened by the TN government over the issue.
The Modi government has made it clear in the Lok Sabha that no southern state will lose even one seat after delimitation, the BJP veteran said. The interest of the people of the southern states will be ensured in the matter.
Daring the Chief Minister to speak the truth on fund allocation, the Home Minister said “answer my questions before the people. I say with statistics that the Modi government gave Rs 5,08,337 lakh crore to Tamil Nadu as against a mere Rs 1.52 lakh crore by the then UPA regime (from 2004-2014). You are saying Modi government is doing injustice. But the injustice was done to the state during the UPA regime when you were part of the government then.”
In addition, the Centre provided Rs 1.43 lakh crore to Tamil Nadu to develop its infrastructure, he said.
Shah deplored the lack of safety to girl students in the university and expressed concern that college students were getting killed for opposing the sale of illicit liquor.
He exuded confidence the NDA will come to power in Tamil Nadu next year after the Assembly elections and that the win would be bigger than the saffron bloc’s Maharashtra and Haryana victories.
On the occasion, Shah virtually inaugurated the party offices at Tiruvannamalai and Ramanathapuram.
BJP general secretary (org) B L Santhosh, Union Minister L Murugan, senior leaders: Dr P Sudhakara Reddy, Pon Radhakrishnan, H Raja, and state president K Annamalai participated.
