CHENNAI: Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu and BJP state president K Annamalai on Monday sparred over the debt burden of Tamil Nadu on X handle.
Referring to the charge Chief Minister MK Stalin made when he was the leader of the opposition in 2021 that the then AIADMK government had increased the debt burden of the state to Rs 5 lakh crore by receiving ‘commission’, Annamalai asked how much ‘commission’ the CM had received to increase the debt of TN to Rs 9.5 lakh crore by the end of the current fiscal.
Sharply reacting to this, Thennarasu said, “The debt burden of India which stood at Rs 55.87 lakh crore in 2014 has gone up to Rs 181.74 lakh crore in 2025. Shall we ask how much commission you people together have received to increase the debt burden of the country so much?”
Thennarasu said the economic survey of India hailed the growth of Tamil Nadu during the past three years. As such, spreading malicious views on social media shows Annamalai’s lack of political maturity. He further said, “If you (BJP leaders) are genuinely concerned about the welfare of Tamil Nadu, ensure the disbursal of funds due to Tamil Nadu for education, MGNREGA scheme, etc by speaking to the union ministers concerned.”
Responding, Annamalai said, “It is laughable that the minister does not even know that he has to draw comparisons only among the states. Surprisingly, the minister does not know about the extent of infrastructure development that has been made in the country between 2014 and 2024,”
Annamalai said and reeled out a list of infrastructure developments done by the centre under various schemes in Tamil Nadu and said the centre had availed loans only to improve the infrastructure.
“We just repeated the question your leader posed a few years ago. Please clarify how much is your commission on the total loan availed or clarify whether you have been availing loans just to receive a commission,” he added.