BJP leader did not criticse Tamil Nadu government. He only mentioned about the practice of cash for votes, says D Jayakumar
A day after BJP president Amit Shah termed Tamil Nadu the most corrupt state in the country, the ruling AIADMK claimed that the BJP leader's comment was not targetted at the state government.
"Amit Shah would have mentioned only good things about Tamil Nadu. But the translator of his Hindi speech in Tamil might have made a mistake. BJP leader did not criticse Tamil Nadu government. He only mentioned about the practice of cash for votes," senior AIADMK leader and Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar told reporters here on Tuesday.
On Monday, Shah had said, "When I think about Tamil Nadu, I feel bad. I say with deep regret and pain that Tamil Nadu is a state with the highest prevalence of corruption." He also called upon BJP workers to end the practice of cash for votes in the state. He, however, did not mention name of any parties in his speech.
Shah, who visited Chennai on Monday to devise the party's state unit strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, addressed a rally here in Hindi and his speech was translated in Tamil by party's national secretary H Raja. As the Raja made a few glaring mistakes in the translation, Jayakumar pointed out that when Shah mentioned about micro-irrigation, Raja wrongly translated it as 'Siru Neer', which means urine in Tamil instead of 'Nunnuyir Pasanam'. "So like this Raja might have wrongly translated whatever good things mentioned by Amit Shah about Tamil Nadu," he said sarcastically. Interestingly, BJP leader Raja shared a screen-shot of an online dictionary on Twitter with meaning for the word micro in Tamil defending his translation.
BJP's state general secretary Vanathi Srinivasan said Shah did mention about the corruption prevalent in Tamil Nadu but it was not targeted only at the AIADMK. "He expressed the presumption about Tamil Nadu across the country. He was critical of all the parties that ruled Tamil Nadu including both the AIADMK and the DMK," she said.
Shah's comment surprised politicial commentators as the BJP and the AIADMK were expected to join hands ahead of the next year's Lok Sabha polls.
Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Su Thirunavukarasar asked the BJP to severe its ties with the AIADMK after terming the state as most corrupt. He said BJP should not forge an alliance with AIADMK for the ensuing Parliamentary polls. While senior Congress leader and former Union Minister of State EVKS Elangovan asked the BJP government at the Centre to dissolve the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu if they have evidence for the corruption.
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