After MGR photograph in BJP video, Kamaraj cutout at PM’s TN rally

Two months after the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit confronted a backlash from ally AIADMK for utilizing a picture of occasion founder M G Ramachandran in a teaser video for a BJP occasion, there have been big cutouts of MGR in addition to Ok Kamaraj, a veteran Congress chief and former Chief Minister, on the venue of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Coimbatore on Thursday.
Congress leaders known as it shameful, saying that Kamaraj had been subjected to an assault by the RSS. However, an RSS chief denied that the organisation had any function within the assault and stated there was nothing mistaken within the resolution to make use of a cutout of the chief.
Meanwhile, on the rally at Codissia stadium on Thursday, PM Modi focused the DMK-Congress alliance in poll-bound Tamil Nadu and stated a gathering of leaders from the 2 events could be like a “corruption hackathon” as they typically meet solely to debate “how to loot”. The Prime Minister additionally launched a number of initiatives in Coimbatore at an occasion attended by Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Minister Edappadi Ok Palaniswami and Deputy CM O Panneerselvam. The Neyveli New Thermal Power Project and a 709 MW solar energy undertaking for 4 southern Tamil Nadu districts, a modernisation undertaking of the Bhavani Sagar dam to irrigate as much as two lakh acres of land in Erode, Tirupur and Karur, the eight-laning of Korampallam Bridge and Rail over Bridge (ROB) at VOC port in Tuticorin, a cargo administration centre close to Sriperumbudur close to Chennai, 4,144 tenements in-built Turupur, Madurai and Trichy areas for the homeless have been among the many key initiatives Modi inaugurated in Coimbatore on Thursday.

Lauding the Tamil language and tradition, the Prime Minister stated on the rally that the NDA and AIADMK governments working collectively was a basic instance of cooperative federalism and listed plenty of Central schemes citing the cordial relationship between the state and Union governments. “Opposition style of politics is based on bullying and harassment. Whenever DMK comes to power, they promote a strong man culture. In every district, they have anti-social elements who trouble innocent citizens. Their party leaders extort money. Do you know who suffers the most in such a culture? It is the women of Tamil Nadu. Entire Tamil Nadu knows how DMK treated Amma Jayalalithaa-ji,” Modi stated.
Meanwhile, EVKS Elangovan, one of many senior-most Congress leaders in Tamil Nadu and the previous chief of Tamil Nadu Congress Party, instructed The Indian Express that BJP and RSS haven’t any proper to make use of the picture of a frontrunner whom they tried to kill as soon as. “When he (Kamaraj) was the president of All Indian Congress Committee (AICC), RSS people tried to kill him in Delhi because he was from Tamil Nadu. They have no right to use his picture now,” Elangovan stated.
Congress spokesperson Anand Srinivasan stated, “They appropriated Sardar Patel first. And what happened? They replaced his name with Narendra Modi in the Gujarat stadium… BJP and RSS should be shameless, they go everywhere and try to appropriate leaders. Their effort to appropriate Kamaraj means nothing but that they are eyeing Hindu Nadar votes,” Srinivasan stated.
Claiming that he wasn’t conscious of Kamaraj’s photograph on the Coimbatore rally, H Raja, senior RSS chief and the previous nationwide secretary of BJP, stated, “What is wrong in it? He was part of Jan Sangh alliance with Rajaji in 1971. What happened to his own outfit Indian National Congress (Organisation)? It was merged into Janata Party later. What is wrong in BJP using his photo then.”
Responding to Elangovan’s allegation that RSS had tried to kill him as soon as, referring to an incident through which his home was burnt down by Hindu teams in Delhi, Raja stated it was an incident that occurred in 1967 through which RSS had no function. “Did the chargesheet mention the name of RSS in Mahatma Gandhi assassination? No. Similarly, RSS had no role in that attack against Kamaraj too. RSS name was not mentioned anywhere. The attack was following his controversial remarks, ‘why not kill, why not eat’, in response to a conference organised by various Hindu organisations in 1967 against cow slaughter. RSS did not attack him but some of the people who were hurt by his remarks were behind it,” Raja stated.

Ramu Manivannan, who teaches political science within the University of Madras, stated, “There is a section of people who use Kamaraj for their community identity. Other than targeting this group to expand their community-based expansion in Tamil Nadu, I don’t see any other factor for BJP to use Kamaraj’s image in their party rally. They never spoke about his governance or policies. It is kind of projecting the Hindu Nadar votes, which is undoubtedly an emerging vote bank for BJP in Tamil Nadu,” Manivannan stated.