Jayalalithaa slams DMK for its failures

MADURAI - Coming down heavily on Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK’s “failures” on various fronts, AIADMK chief J. Jayalalithaa Monday asserted she would sew up a winning electoral alliance in next year’s assembly polls.

In her two-hour speech at a rally attended by nearly three lakh people, Jayalalithaa charged the DMK government with failing to get the state its share of river water from Kerala, maintain law and order, augment power generation thus plunging the state into darkness, and rein in rising prices of essential commodities.

“In order to protect his family’s business interest in Kerala, (Chief Minister M.) Karunanidhi is reluctant to carry on the gains obtained by the AIADMK government in the Mullaperiyar dam issue,” she charged.

Citing the attacks on police, lawyers, judges and common people and the recent death threats she received, Jayalalithaa said: “In Tamil Nadu there is no safety for anybody except the rowdies.”

Referring to former union minister T. Kiruttinan’s murder and the death of three employees of Tamil daily Dinakaran here when its office was torched and the subsequent acquittal of all the accused in both the cases, she wondered: “Did Kiruttinan commit suicide while going for morning walk with his friends? Did the three employees torch themselves?”

She also wondered why the state government did not go on appeal against the acquittals.

A good portion of her speech was devoted to bashing Karunanidhi’s son and union Chemical and Fertilisers Minister M.K. Alagiri - the local strongman - for avoiding the question hour in parliament, his family’s business interests and the influence of his associates.

“Eleven district collectors and several police officials have been changed during the past four years for not toeing the dictates of Alagiri and his associates. These transfers are taken care by Alagiri’s associate,” Jayalalithaa alleged.

She said Madurai which was once known for its temples and its hard working people is now largely known for crime

“In Tamil Nadu there are two governments - one in Chennai headed by Karunanidhi and his son M.K. Stalin, the deputy chief minister - and the other in Madurai under Alagiri and his associates,” she alleged.

“One of Alagiri’s associates had said that Madurai is called Alagiri Nadu. And Stalin has to get ‘visa’ from Alagiri to visit Madurai,” Jayalalithaa said.

Referring to the various death threat letters sent to her to deter her from holding the rally here she posed: “Why is the brave heart (sobriquet for Alagiri) afraid? I am not the one to be cowed down by these threats. Today I have proved who is the true brave heart.”

She said the law and order situation in Madurai has worsened with while police are reluctant to receive complaints from victims.

Charging the DMK government for attempting to thwart people attending her rallies in Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli and here, Jayalalithaa said: “In Coimbatore, vehicles were stopped 10 km before the meeting venue and in Tiruchirapalli, the distance was increased to 15 km and people were forced to walk the distance.”

Here, she claimed, that vehicles were parked on the roads haphazardly preventing free flow of traffic.

According to her nearly 20 lakh people were on the roads because of this. It took her more than two hours to cross a distance of around 15 km from airport to the meeting venue, she said.