AIADMK general secretary and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Saturday dissected the DMK Lok Sabha poll manifesto dubbing it “a bundle of lies.”
Canvassing votes for her party’s Thoothukudi constituency candidate Jayasingh Thyagaraj Nattarji, Jayalalithaa tore into the DMK’s 100-point manifesto by pointing to inherent contradictions between its stated objective and the party’s actual political position on core issues such as allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the retail sector.
While the DMK’s manifesto states that the party would take steps to prevent entry of FDI in the retail sector, Jayalalithaa pointed out that the DMK and its president M Karunanidhi had endorsed the UPA-II Government’s decision to allow FDI in the sector. She accused the DMK leader of doing a volte face on the issue. Such actions, she charged, went on show that Karunanidhi was a political chameleon who would not hesitate to change colours at will.
The AIADMK leader also criticised the DMK election manifesto which promises Income Tax (IT) waiver for gratuity and Provident Fund (PF) amount. Jayalalithaa said already as per rule the gratuity and PF amount were not taxable. “This reflects the DMK’s ignorance on the subject. Karunanidhi should explain whether he had read the manifesto at all or just released it without examining its contents,” she said.
Denying Karunanidhi’s accusation that she had sent Kar Sevaks to Ayodhya to aid the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, Jayalalithaa charged that the DMK leader was indulging in Goebbels’ propaganda. “I never sent any Kar Sevaks to Ayodhya. Though I have been maintaining this time and again, Karunanidhi is indulging in propaganda like Goebbels who wanted to convince people to accept falsehood by repeating a lie,” she said.
Meanwhile, continuing her attack on the Congress-led UPA-I&II regimes, she said this decade of governance by the party has turned out to be a monstrous regime which failed to control rise in prices of essential commodities. Inflation had spiraled due to the wrong economic policies of the Centre. “The results of the coming Parliamentary elections would change the fate of India,” she said while appealing to vote for the AIADMK to put it in a commanding position in the post-poll period.
At the public meeting, 2,400 cadres of different political parties joined the AIADMK in the presence of Jayalalithaa.