Thambidurai questions leaders’ absence

In a statement here, Thambidurai, also the party’s propaganda secretary, said that Jayalalithaa had considered former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a role model, adding that Congress leaders, too, could have attended the function. Recalling that Dravidian movement’s founder EVR Periyar had dedicated himself to women’s liberation, he said it was strange that the Dravidian party leaders who claim to follow his footsteps stayed away. 

Pointing out that it was Jayalalithaa who passed an Assembly resolution for a referendum for a separate Tamil Eelam and international inquiry into the alleged war crimes of the Sri Lankan government, he asked: “Is it just to oppose the unveiling of portrait in the Assembly for a leader who passed such resolutions for Eelam Tamils?” “Which leader is beyond controversy in politics? Who did not face criticisms and allegations? The effort to black out a leader’s achievements by highlighting the allegations only showed the envy and jealousy of such persons”, he said. Whenever alliance was needed PMK founder S Ramadoss had approached Jayalalithaa and obtained posts for his party in the Union government, but they had been ungrateful, he added.