CHENNAI: Accusing the BJP of wearing a Tamil identity mask to seek support for its Vice-President candidate CP Radhakrishnan, Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Sunday said it is ideologies and not individuals that guide politics as individuals are just symbols. “We should support the ideology that stands for the people,” he said.
Addressing a meeting of leaders of INDIA bloc and the alliance’s MPs from Tamil Nadu in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to support Justice B Sudershan Reddy’s candidature for the V-P election, in Chennai, the CM also hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for targeting the former SC judge over Naxalism. “The centre could not end Naxal-based extremism and in order to hide its incompetence, Justice Reddy was labelled a ‘Naxal’ by Shah,” the CM alleged.
“You (Reddy) are eminently qualified for the post of Vice President of India. That is why the INDIA bloc has declared you as our candidate. At a time when the BJP is attempting to undermine the Constitution, we need a judge who has defended it once to safeguard it again. Justice Reddy is also one who respects Tamil Nadu and its sentiments,” Stalin said.
Recalling Reddy’s call for withdrawal of the new National Education Policy (NEP), Stalin said Reddy had said the NEP is against human dignity since it would only promote ‘I-Me-Mine culture’.
Now it is your turn to judge me: Sudershan
THE retired judge had said the NEP would not nurture plurality or the democratic spread of education. “Do we need a bigger reason for proposing this personality for the V-P post,” Stalin asked.
The CM also charged that the BJP-led union government has been using central agencies against its political adversaries. It has also been transforming autonomous bodies into subsidiaries of the BJP. So, the Constitution itself is in peril. At this juncture, it is our duty to support a person who believes in the fundamental principles of India — secularism, federalism, social justice, and unity in diversity.
Addressing the gathering, Justice B Sudershan Reddysaid Tamil Nadu leads the country in the art of imagination and vision. But for that vision, the state would not have been in the present situation leading the rest of the states in the Human Development Index, he said. “I have given enough judgments. Now it is your turn to judge me. Hitherto, I was upholding the Constitution, having true faith and allegiance to the Constitution. If given an opportunity, I will do everything possible to protect and uphold the Constitution,” Reddy added.
Later, answering queries of reporters flanked by leaders of DMK allies — K Selvaperunthagai, Thol Thirumavalavan and Vaiko — Reddy said he was grateful to all leaders of the opposition political parties that represented more than 64% of the population of the country.
When asked about Amit Shah’s criticism of him, Reddy said he had already responded to that. “I don’t keep on responding to that. It would not be appropriate on my part to continuously talk about a matter which is totally irrelevant to our present purpose.”
To another question, Reddy declined to comment on NDA’s V-P candidate CP Radhakrishnan. “It is the contest for the post of V-P of the nation. I have promised the nation, and I reiterate it. It is going to be one of the most decent elections ever fought in the recent past. I do not wish to make any comments about him, and he is a candidate.” DMK parliamentary party leader Kanimozhi, CPM state secretary P Shanmugam and senior leaders of the DMK and its alliance parties were present.