Time is ripe for the people to overthrow the AIADMK government, which has become a slave of the BJP, Veerappa Moily, AICC observer for the Congress’s election campaign management in the State, said on Thursday.
The former Union Minister charged the AIADMK with not upholding federalism and that the BJP was acting as a patron of the AIADMK.
“The AIADMK supported the Citizenship Amendment Act. But for its 12 votes [in Rajya Sabha], that Bill would not have been passed. Now, the AIADMK is saying it will ask the Centre to revoke CAA. All this is being done for the purpose of election. If you look at how the BJP is playing it, it is not raising the issue of CAA in Assam, but in West Bengal, it is talking about it,” he told The Hindu.
Mr. Moily said the three Farm Bills were passed only because the AIADMK supported them in Parliament. “There is brazen slavishness on the part of the AIADMK,” he alleged and added had the former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa been alive, she would have never let things come to such a pass.
Slamming the BJP government for abstaining in the UNHRC vote on Sri Lanka recently, Mr. Moily claimed that this showed that the party was not interested in the welfare of Tamilians. He said protection of Tamilians was in the psyche of the electorate. “Politics is more important for the NDA than the welfare of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. This abstention is a big blow for the Tamilians,” he said.
Power sharing
Asked why the Congress had not been seeking a share in power in the State with the DMK, Mr. Moily said it was not a dominant demand of the party. The party was more concerned about the stability and integrity of the country than “grabbing power”. “Sharing power is only incidental. It is not the dominant factor,” he said.
According to him, DMK president M.K. Stalin was a natural leader who had trained under his father and then DMK patriarch M. Karunanidhi. “This time we are going to be victorious, and he is bound to be the Chief Minister,” Mr. Moily said.
