CHENNAI: Even as the war of words between the two factions of the AIADMK continued on Saturday, BJP veteran and Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan too triggered a controversy with his elegiac remark on the Dravidian majors, inviting the wrath of AIADMK deputy general secretary TTV Dinakaran and treasurer Dindigul C Srinivasan.
Talking to mediapersons at the airport, Radhakrishnan said the people of Tamil Nadu had given up both the Dravidian parties - AIADMK and DMK. “I think the AIADMK is almost destroyed while the DMK is on the verge of collapse. You should not talk about the popularity of these parties now based on the percentage of votes they had already scored.
"People of Tamil Nadu are looking for a change and they have understood that the BJP alone can show that path. Unable to digest the growth of BJP in Tamil Nadu, some political parties and some extremist groups were instigating protests on various issues," he said.
A couple of hours later, Dinakaran, in a statement, took strong exception to the remarks of Radhakrishnan. He said the people of Tamil Nadu knew the contribution of the Dravidian movement and its leaders including Periyar, Anna, poet Bharathidasan, MG Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa who had sacrificed themselves for the sake of social justice. The works of the Dravidian movement for over 100 years could not be removed from the hearts of the people of Tamil Nadu, he asserted.
"Tamil Nadu and the AIADMK are like mother and child and no one can create a rift between them. Just because a few people have created ripples in the AIADMK, a veteran leader like Pon Radhakrishnan should not say that AIADMK has almost been destroyed. We have faced many such ripples and as usual, will win always,” he added.