Jaya pledge poll-oriented, says Karunanidhi

In a statement here, Karunanidhi said with the elections round the corner and at a time when the Centre did not implement prohibition across the country, her announcement while kickstarting her election campaign that she would implement total prohibition in a phased manner if her party was  voted back to power, was an attempt to divert the attention of the people. 

‘’But, people of Tamil Nadu cannot be cheated by such announcements’’, he charged. Recalling Power and Excise Minister Natham R Viswanathan’s remarks in the State Assembly that it would not be possible to implement prohibition in the state and that if the Centre decided to implement it the AIADMK government would be the first to introduce it in Tamil Nadu, the DMK chief said in this backdrop, Jayalalithaa had come out with such an announcement with an eye on the polls. 

Karunanidhi also questioned her silence for not making such an announcement during her five-year rule during which Gandhian Sasiperumal had died while demanding prohibition and sedition cases were slapped against folk singer Kovan and others for their stand against the government on prohibition. Karunanidhi also denied Jayalalithaa’s charge that the DMK had no locus standi to talk about prohibition as it was the DMK regime that had reintrdouced it in 1971.  

He said, despite requests from leaders like Rajaji, his government was forced to lift the ban on prohibition in 1971 and said it was again banned in 1974 by the DMK regime.  He also claimed that the ban on prohibition was lifted only after the AIADMK came to power. 

DMK treasurer M K Stalin, in a statement said, had Jayalalithaa made this announcement much earlier, the state would not have lost a Gandhian like Sasiperumal. PMK youth wing leader Dr Anbumani too said Jayalalithaa’s announcement was made with an eye on the elections.