Days after bringing up a 1989 event involving former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa in Parliament during the debate over a motion of no-confidence, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman came under fire from Tamil Nadu’s ruling party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
In an interview with India Today, DMK MP Trichy Siva refuted Sitharaman’s assertions and asserted that the incident was manufactured and choreographed.
‘Nirmala Sitharaman was abroad till 1991. She is talking based on hearsay. If you want to know about the truth, Congress MP S Thirunavukkarasar was with J Jayalalithaa then and has given a statement that it was already rehearsed and enacted,’ Siva told India Today.
‘You can also ask KKSSR Ramachandran (present DMK minister) who was with J Jayalalithaa then instead of Nirmala Sitharaman or anyone who was not present during the incident. We have also made it clear that these are allegations levelled as they are not able to face us ideologically,’ Trichy Siva added in his remarks.
Earlier, on August 10, Nirmala Sitharaman said, “I agree she (DMK leader Kanimozhi) has got the concern. In her speech, she compared the atrocities in Manipur to the incident in which Droupadi’s saree was pulled in Kaurava court from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. No matter where they are, whether in Manipur, Delhi, Rajasthan, or Madhya Pradesh, women’s suffering must be treated seriously.
Nirmala Sitharaman also discussed the episode in which Jayalalithaa’s saree was taken off in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on March 25, 1989, during her address.
‘I want to remind the house (Lok Sabha) about one incident which happened on 25th March 1989 in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Then she (Jayalalithaa) had not become the Chief Minister, but she was a Leader of the Opposition. Jayalalithaa’s saree was pulled in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. She was a Leader of Opposition and the DMK members who were seated there, heckled her and laughed at her.’ Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Nirmala Sitharaman attacked the DMK, a member of the opposition group in INDIA, saying, ‘You are talking about Kaurava Sabha, you are talking about Droupadi. Does DMK still remember Jayalalithaa? You humiliated her by yanking her saree.’
Later, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin responded to the Union Minister’s remarks and said that she must have read from ‘WhatsApp history’ when she talked.
Stalin, addressing the late Jayalalithaa, said in an interview with a daily that ‘everyone present in the Assembly knew it was a drama enacted by herself,’ in response to the finance minister’s accusations.
Stalin stated in the interview that Sitharaman ‘will say something based on a Whatsapp history,’ according to a DMK release.
However, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, the AIADMK general secretary and leader of the opposition, said that he was present when the incident took place in the Tamil Nadu assembly and that it was a sitting DMK minister who tugged Jayalalithaa’s saree.
‘I say this as I was present in the Tamil Nadu assembly when the incident occurred. This happened in front of then CM Karunanidhi. DMK Ministers and MLAs brutally attacked Jayalalithaa. Thirunavukarasu and KKSSR Ramachandran tried to block them, but a present senior minister pulled Jayalalithaa’s saree and a few ministers and MLAs pulled her hair. It was a brutal incident that happened inside the assembly,’ Edappadi K Palaniswami told India Today.
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