Chennai: The BJP’s key ally in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK on Wednesday slammed the Saffron party alleging that it is anti-Tamil and claimed that the party could never grow in the state.
The alliance with the BJP was merely an ‘electoral adjustment’ and the Saffron party’s ideology is diametrically opposite to that of the AIADMK, veteran party leader C Ponnaiyan said.
Ponnaiyan alleged that the BJP is continuously ‘imposing’ Hindi despite AIADMK’s stiff opposition all along. “The imposition of Hindi is many times more than what it was during the Congress-led governments at the Centre,” he told PTI. “We firmly stand by the 2-language policy of Tamil and English.”
Ponnaiyan, a founding member of the AIADMK, is the party’s organisation secretary and a senior spokesperson. A former Minister during the previous AIADMK regimes, he was part of the Cabinet led by both party founder M G Ramachandran and late leader J Jayalalithaa.
He said the AIADMK is opposed to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for medical admissions. The BJP, however, is ‘forcing’ the test on Tamil Nadu and this has led to a scenario of ‘students from northern states’, taking away a chunk of seats in medical colleges in the state, he alleged.
While ‘state autonomy’ is a fundamental principle of his party, the former Minister said the BJP-led central government has reduced state governments to the level of a ‘village panchayat’ by taking away the rights of states like those related to taxation.
Pointing to the Supreme Court judgment on Cauvery river water issue and inter-state river water matters like the Mullaiperiyar, he condemned what he termed the BJP’s ‘step-motherly’ treatment towards Tamil Nadu.
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