CHENNAI: The barbs thrown by senior BJP leader in Tamil Nadu and Union Minister for Highways and Road Transport Pon Radhakrishnan triggered a bitter quarrel as the DMK shot back saying the minister had no reason to criticise the party as he had tendered an apology for not being able to facilitate holding of jallikattu before the ordinance was promulgated.
The problem began when Pon Radhakrishnan, addressing the media on Wednesday with a few 24X7 Tamil news channels going on air, openly accused the DMK men of fomenting problems at the jallikattu protests that turned violent on the seventh day.
“Websites have shown that DMK men had infiltrated,” he said when replying to a question. Further, he wondered how DMK could wash its hands when members of the party were sighted creating trouble.
Pon Radhakrishnan also accused the DMK of indirectly goading its cadre to indulge in sabotage on past occasions, besides alleging that the main opposition party in the state was the root-cause for the jallikattu fiasco as it failed to complete the legal process relating to a law enacted in 2009. “The DMK did not do what it had to do resulting in the current trouble,” he said
Reacting sharply to the accusations made by Pon Radhakrishnan, DMK spokesman TKS Elangovan retaliated by saying, “Pon Radhakrishnan tendered an apology after keeping on blaring that jallikattu will be held. He has no reason to criticise the DMK on the Jallikattu Regulation Act.”
Explaining that the Tamil Nadu Jallikattu Regulation Act, 2009, enacted during the DMK regime, was a supplementary act to the parent law, he said it was clearly stated in Section 10 and asked sarcastically the Union Minister to go through it, had he not done so already.
If the government enacted the law contrary to the parent law, the President’s nod had to be obtained and if it was a supplementary law, the State government had got the authority to enact it. “It is totally a correct Act that was brought by the then DMK government.
As a result, jallikattu could be held without any hurdles between 2006 and 2011. It could not be held ever since the BJP came to power in 2014,” the DMK MP said. Elangovan also alleged that a disinformation campaign was being held to cover up the inability of the Centre and the State governments that led to youngsters and students plunge into such a massive protest. He said, “How dare he, being a Tamilian, describe the stir as if it is carried out by anti-national elements.”