CHENNAI: Visible fissures have emerged in the DMK-led alliance as the TNCC president KS Alagiri warned Vaiko, general secretary of MDMK, for his remark against the Congress and late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, over the Kashmir issue in recent Parliament debates. The Congress leader claimed that Vaiko has had a "change in behaviour' since becoming a member of Parliament.
Vaiko’s response to Alagiri was not one that was aimed at making amends with the ally. Vaiko said that he was elected as Rajya Sabha MP only with the support of DMK MLAs, not by Congress support.
Alagiri, in a press release on Thursday stated, “The union government’s move to repeal Article 370 of the constitution was vehemently opposed by all the secular parties including Congress, DMK and Communist parties. But, a shock to all, Vaiko, who is one of the alliance partners of DMK-Congress alliance, when he spoke on the bill, blamed the Congress party.”
Vaiko’s speeches have been ‘targeting the Congress’, the statement said. “He meets Subramaniyan Swamy, Modi and BJP, leaders. And he also meets Manmohan Singh to avoid the label of a supporter of the BJP. This shows that his politics is opportunistic,” it added.
Earlier, he had conspired against the DMK when the party formed a strong alliance against the AIADMK in the 2016 assembly general election by stitching together the People Welfare Front to prevent the DMK from coming to power, the statement said.
“The fact is Kashmir was annexed to India only because of Nehru's efforts and timely action. If not for him, Kashmir would have been annexed to Pakistan,” the statement said while questioning what Vaiko means by ‘Congress’s betrayal of Kashmir’. He also warned of a strong response if Vaiko’s ‘attacks on the Congress’ continued.
Congress cadres have been condemning Vaiko on social media for the last three weeks for not having met any Congress leaders after being elected as Rajya Sabha MP despite being a member of DMK-Congress alliance. He, however, met various BJP leaders in Delhi, they claimed.
Responding to the statement, Vaiko told reporters that Congress had no role to play in his election as MP.
"I was sent to Rajya Sabha for three terms by Karunanidhi and now I have been sent to Rajya Sabha only by the support of DMK MLAs not by the support of the Congress party. It was the DMK MLAs who proposed my nomination,” he said.
He questioned the absence of 12 Congress MPs during the vote on the Kashmir bill and wondered whether they had accepted bribes from the BJP.