Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri on Friday alleged that Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami was taking decisions on COVID-19, independent of his Cabinet. He said the Chief Minister was acting independently and his Cabinet was nowhere to be seen during the crisis.
“Initially, the Health Minister was speaking to the media. Suddenly, he was asked to keep quiet and the Health Secretary was asked to brief the media. Now she is also not seen,” Mr. Alagiri charged.
He also asked why the Chief Minister, who was very keen on not allowing the Opposition to hold a multi-party meet at the DMK headquarters with adequate physical distancing, was not able to raise his voice against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing only miniscule funds and only a few thousand rapid test kits for detecting COVID-19.
Further criticising the Chief Minister, Mr. Alagiri said that while Mr. Palaniswami held a meeting with more than 50 officials on Friday in Salem regarding COVID-19, he had not given permission to the Opposition party’s meeting at the DMK headquarters.
“The meeting was to be held at Kalaignar Arangam, with only 11 representatives of the 11 parties. We could have held the meeting without the permission, but did not hold it since this was not the time to engage in politicking,” he said.
