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In a veiled attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday dubbed former union telecom minister A Raja, an ‘outdated 2G missile’ of the Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazagham that targeted Tamil Nadu women and slammed the opposition parties for their ‘anti-women’ mindset.
IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a public meeting as part of election campaign in support of their NDA candidates for Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, at Dharapuram, in Tiruppur district. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo
In his first poll rally for the April 6 assembly polls, Modi rooted for the Tamil language, culture and invoked the welfare legacies of M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa, late chief ministers and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam icons.
He underscored the importance of farm sector reform and his government’s support to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, during his recent campaigns in the staste, had attacked Modi on farm laws, weakening MSMEs through initiatives like the GST and ‘disrespecting’ Tamil culture.
The PM alleged it was part of Congress-DMK culture to insult women and targeted the Trinamool Congress, the Congress and Left parties for their ‘anti-women’ mindset vis-a-vis the death of Shova Majumdar, mother of a Bharatiya Janata Party worker in Bengal.
He said while the National Democratic Alliance’s agenda is development, the Congress and DMK have their own ‘dynasty agenda,’ had nothing positive to offer and all they did was to ‘demean’ others and spread ‘lies.’
Without naming Raja, Modi said Congress and DMK have launched their ‘outdated 2G missile’ and this missile has one clear target, the women of Tamil Nadu.
Congress and DMK have insulted the respected mother of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, he alleged.
“God forbid, if they come to power, they will insult many other women of Tamil Nadu,” the prime minister said.
Days ago, in his campaign, Raja allegedly spoke in an offensive, derogatory manner over the birth of Palaniswami and the ruling AIADMK lodged a police complaint and a case has been registered against him. Raja later apologised for his remark but claimed his words were taken out of context.
Asking the Congress and DMK leadership to control their party leaders, the PM said the people ‘are noting everything’ and they would never tolerate insult to women.
Modi alleged it was part of the Congress-DMK culture to insult women and when DMK’s Dindigul Leoni and ‘young crown prince’ (Udhayanidhi Stalin) made ‘horrible’ remarks against women, nothing was done by that party to stop them. Also, Jayalalithaa was ‘attacked’ in 1989 by DMK, he alleged.
The NDA stood for women empowerment and government schemes including the Ujjwala Yojana empowered women.
The PM said the NDA sought their support based on a solid agenda of all round development and inspired by the ideals of late Chief Ministers M G Ramachandran and ‘Amma Jayalalithaa Ji.’
Modi said India took great pride in the culture of Tamil Nadu. “One of the happiest moments of my life was when I got a chance to speak a few words in the oldest language in the world, Tamil at the United Nations.”
He had quoted Tamil poet Kaniyan Poongundranar’s ‘Yaadum Oorey’ verse in the UN in 2019 which denoted unity and like today to underscore the importance of farming and farmers he had cited Tamil classic ‘Thirukkural’ on several occasions.
Asserting that the NDA is for promotion of Tamil culture and language, he said they were looking into ensuring technical and medical education in Tamil, if possible.
A vote for the AIADMK-BJP combine is a vote to solve long standing issues, he said and cited fulfilling the decades old demand to categorise seven specific Scheduled Caste communities in Tamil Nadu as Devendra Kula Vellalars.
Appreciating people of ‘Kongu’ (western Tamil Nadu, a apparel, textiles and MSMEs hub) region for their ‘spirit of enterprise,’ he said they have always created ‘wealth and value,’ for the nation.
The small, medium and big businesses of this region went out of their way to help others (recently, during the COVID-19 pandemic), he said. They were also known for their business sense and ‘remarkable’ compassion.
Modi said he ‘personally’ and his government are committed to do everything possible to help business and enterprise grow.
The Centre has brought many reforms last year, he said, referring to the Production Linked Incentive Scheme. Citing the proposed defence corridor in Tamil Nadu, he said it would bring many benefits for the people.
Similarly, Tamil Nadu would also have a toy cluster which shall show the way in making top quality toys for the world, he said.
The government’s key focus area is the MSME sector, the backbone of Indian economy and the criteria has been changed for their benefit.
This has made business easier and Rs 14,000 crore has been sanctioned for 3.6 lakh MSMEs in Tamil Nadu. Almost 1.5 lakh people related to this sector have benefitted from the interest subvention scheme and 8.5 lakh units have got the benefit of the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises.
“Our government has taken many measures to end harassment by tax officials.”
The ‘corrupt’ eyes of the Congress and DMK would never let business grow and like in the past, their local strongmen would be busy in ‘money collection’ drive. Due to frequent power cuts, industry could never grow, he alleged.
The prime minister began his speech, by chanting ‘Vetrivel, Veeravel,’ in sync with his party’s state unit’s ‘culture’ push and he was presented a ‘Vel,’ a spear like weapon of Lord Muruga.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, BJP state unit chief L Murugan, who is contesting from Dharapuram, and leaders of other alliance parties participated in the rally.
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