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NEW DELHI: The National Democratic Alliance suffered its first blow with the MDMK led by Vaiko walking out in protest against the BJP’s “anti-Tamil” stance.
The MDMK district secretaries met in Chennai and adopted an unanimous resolution to leave the NDA that the party had joined right on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections. The top rung of the party urged that India should not support Sri Lanka.
Vaiko moved the resolution stating that, “MDMK can no more be part of the BJP-led NDA as the saffron party-led government has been insensitive to a host of issues concerning Tamil Nadu including Mullaperiyar dam issue”.
“BJP has been acting against Tamils. Modi wished Mahinda Rajapaksa for elections (there). Modi government is silent on Subramanian Swamy’s proposal for Bharat Ratna for Rajapaksa”, the resolution stated.
The party also came down heavily on the BJP government’s efforts for the “Sanskritisation of education.”
The MDMK claimed that the Modi government had neglected the needs of the people of Tamil Nadu. By giving permission for the review of the Mullaiperiyar dam water level “Modi is betraying people of Tamil Nadu,” it said.
The resolution was critical of the “inaction” by the Centre on the Cauvery water sharing issue against the backdrop of Tamil Nadu continuing to press for setting up Cauvery Management Authority and its opposition to Karnataka’s plans to build dams across the Cauvery river at Mekedatu.
The party termed the release of five fishermen who were saved from death sentence following pardon granted by Sri Lankan president Mahindra Rajapaksa as a “drama”. It accused the Centre of not solving the fishermen issue.
The MDMK had joined the six-party grand alliance led by the BJP in Tamil Nadu. It contested seven of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in the state but did not win a single. The BJP and PMK were the only two parties in the alliance to win a seat each.
Differences between Vaiko and the Modi government surfaced over the visit of Rajapaksa to India, and became more vocal after the two leaders met at the Saarc meeting. The fissures had the local BJP leaders and Vaiko’s supporters exchanging hot words with the MDMK finally giving good to its threat to leave the alliance.
