TNCC to stage rail roko on April 15, demo on 20th: Alagiri

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president KS Alagiri on Sunday said that the state unit of the party would continue its month-long protests and demonstration against Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government for risking the public sectors and derailing the nation’s economic growth for businessman Adani.

“We are reaching out to the people as part of our month-long protest to turn it into a people’s movement to protect the democracy from the elected autocracy at the Centre now,” he said and announced that the TNCC would hold rail roko on April 15 in all the 76 district units and also stage demonstration in front of the Union government departments on April 20 across the state.

The party’s ‘black flag’ protest against the PM during his visit on Saturday was a successful one, he said and defended the protest at Valluvar Kottam that was several kms away from the PM’s programme venue. “Registering the protest is more important than the place of protest,” he retorted when a journalist questioned the venue of their protest.

Holding the BJP government responsible for the defunct Parliament, Alagiri said it was the responsibility and duty of the ruling party to answer the questions and issues flagged by the opposition.

“Our leader asked for an explanation from the ruling party. The issue was flagged in Parliament, but there was no answer from the BJP. Neither Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi nor Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were forthcoming to talk about this. The SBI incurred a loss to the tune of Rs 54,618 crore due to Adani group,” he added.

Unlike other business tycoons like Tata and Birla, who were into business for generations, the Gujarat-based businessman Adani’s growth was astonishing since the BJP came to power. It was not a natural growth, but it was “inflated.” It was not healthy for the nation, said Alagiri.

He also debunked PM Modi’s statement that his government allocated an all-time high budget of over Rs 6,000 crore to railways in Tamil Nadu when compared to the UPA and said, “There was no GST in Congress-led government. Moreover, the UPA govt allocated more than Rs 2,000 crore each to Sethu Samuthiram project and Kudankulam project.”