CHENNAI: DMK MP Kanimozhi NVN Somu and MSME minister TM Anbarasan triggered a controversy by allegedly blaming north Indian migrant workers for the drug menace in Tamil Nadu. The statements were made during a party meeting in the city on Friday.
In a video clip of the meeting, Kanimozhi is heard saying “while our children, who studied Tamil and English, are working abroad as engineers, doctors and scientists, those who studied Hindi are coming to Tamil Nadu to sell ganja and pani puri”.
Anbarasan, who also spoke on the same stage earlier, claimed around 10,000 people arrive in Tamil Nadu daily from northern states, “with some bringing one or two kilograms of ganja”. He said the DMK government had brought the situation under control and that such problems would not have arisen had the previous AIADMK government taken similar steps. He also claimed ganja has a free run in other states.
Reacting to the remarks, the state unit of BJP condemned the DMK leaders for “targeting and demeaning” north Indian migrant workers. Former state BJP president K Annamalai said despite repeated attacks on migrant workers in Tamil Nadu, DMK ministers and MPs “appear to have learnt absolutely nothing, except how to normalise their hate against migrant workers”. Calling it a pattern, Annamalai said such targeted and demeaning rhetoric against migrant workers has become a routine affair under the DMK regime. “By repeatedly stereotyping an entire section of people as criminals and petty offenders, the DMK is actively legitimising social hostility and violence on the ground,” he said.