Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Wednesday said the BJP and AIADMK governments had protected the minorities well.
Campaigning in the Edappadi constituency to seek votes for Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and other candidates of the AIADMK-led front, he said there was strong protection for minorities both at the national and State levels.
People will never let the DMK return to power since their earlier regime was marked by land grab and kangaroo courts. Former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa recovered and restored ₹3,500 crore-worth lands grabbed during the DMK rule to their owners, he said. Mr. Panneerselvam appealed to the people to vote Mr. Palaniswami to power and enable continuance of good governance.
Mr. Panneerselvam said the DMK never intended to find solutions to issues. Hence, Jayalalithaa had to move the court for a gazette notification on the Cauvery tribunal award during the Congress-DMK regime at the Centre.
The DMK and the Congress could have stopped the war in Sri Lanka but they did not save the Sri Lankan Tamils, he said. And it was Jayalalithaa who passed a resolution in the Assembly declaring the then Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse a war criminal, and said he must undergo trial at the International Court of Justice.
On investments in the State, Mr. Panneerselvam said during the DMK regime, these were only to the tune of ₹45,000 crore. In its two consecutive terms, the AIADMK regime had brought in investments worth ₹6.87 lakh crore. It had also created 19 lakh jobs opportunities. Besides, 602 MoUs were signed and 82.4% of projects had been realised.
Campaigning for the AIADMK and PMK candidates in Dharmapuri, Mr. Panneerselvam said the coming election would determine who had the ability to provide good governance, and that was why people should vote for the AIADMK.
The AIADMK government achieved what the Congress could not. “The DMK- Congress rule could not fetch a single medical college for the State. But during the AIADMK rule, the BJP government at the Centre sanctioned 11 to the State,” he said.
Mr. Panneerselvam alleged that the ban on Jallikattu was a conspiracy by the DMK and the Congress and claimed that the issue was resolved at “the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
