‘Wiggle’ vs ‘crawl’: Word war in Tamil Nadu Assembly over CM Stalin’s quip

CHENNAI: “What’s in a word, if it is not un-parliamentary?” One might argue, every time members of political parties made fuss about an MLAs choice of lingo in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. “A lot” must be the answer depending upon the side of the political spectrum s/he was in the House.

Such a wordy and engaging debate ensued in the State Assembly on Tuesday after members of the opposition AIADMK objected to Chief Minister MK Stalin’s choice of words while he drew a parallel between the growth achieved in the previous AIADMK and the incumbent through efficiency.

Unimpressed by the CM’s remarks, “Administrative infrastructure of the State was ‘wiggling’ due to the maladministration of the previous rulers,” AIADMK legislators, after intensely persuading the Chair, officially sought to expunge the word, ‘wiggling’ from the CM’s reply. A dissenting deputy Leader of Opposition R B Udhayakumar even said, “The Chief Minister spoke about Part-I and Part-II. Let me clarify; Part-II has never succeeded in Tamil Nadu. Like Indian-II (Kamal Haasan starrer), your Part-II (ambition) will also be a failure.” He also called for expunging the ‘wiggling’ remark of the Chief Minister.

However, a defiant Speaker M Appavu and Leader of the House Duraimurugan insisted that it was not un-parliamentary and the business of the House was well past the subject.

Joining the issue with Udhayakumar, a sarcastic Stalin rose and said, “I did not refer to anyone when I said wiggling. Also, it is not unparliamentary. If the word pricks you or reminds you of someone, I would come forward to expunge the word ‘wiggle’ from the records, and replace it with crawl,” triggering a laughter riot from the ruling benches and visible disappointment in the faces of Opposition AIADMK members, who must be familiar with the deep underlying political meaning of the word ‘crawl’ in the post-Jayalalithaa era of Tamil Nadu politics.