CHENNAI: In a passing reference during her speech on the state’s budget for 2025-26 in the Assembly, BJP’s Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan mentioned she had the opportunity to travel to many states in the country and TN remains the best compared to others.
Quick to take this as an endorsement of their governance, the DMK MLAs in the treasury bench started thumping the desks loudly in appreciation. Taking their reaction in jest, Vanathi quipped the credit should not go to the DMK alone but to all.
Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu quickly joined the exchange and asked how could others take credit. “We brought in rice and someone brought in husk and you are saying all should share the credit,” he said, in a reference to an analogy used in a Tamil adage that talks about people wanting to reap the benefits without making any contribution.
BJP’s floor leader and Tirunelveli MLA Nainar Nagenthran intervened at this point, in a bid to clarify saying, “What Vanathi meant to say was that all the CMs from CN Annadurai, MG Ramachandran, M Karunanidhi, J Jayalalithaa to Edappadi K Palaniswami, all must share the credit.”
Implying that BJP has never ruled TN, Thennarasu retorted, “What role the BJP has in this? Why are you stepping in instead of just standing on the sidelines and watching?”
With a laughter, the discussion shifted to Vanathi urging the state government to find alternative ways with foresightedness to come out of the debt burden, to which Thennarasu pointed out that many BJP-ruled states have relatively more debts compared to Tamil Nadu.