Against the backdrop of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s road show in Palakkad, Kerala, and Salem, Tamil Nadu, on 19 March 2024, the Congress, aiming to propagate a negative narrative suggesting discontent among the visited populace, faced rebuttal. Jairam Ramesh, an MP and Congress’s communication head, crafted inquiries purportedly representing public sentiment. However, Tamil Nadu State President Annamalai swiftly countered these assertions.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh raised several questions regarding Prime Minister Modi’s visits to Tamil Nadu and Kerala. He highlighted concerns about the Prime Minister’s attention to Tamil Nadu during crises with a tone buttressing its ally DMK, the impact of policies on textile factories, development remarks about Kerala, and environmental conservation efforts. In response, Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai refuted these claims, emphasizing discrepancies in flood relief figures, attributing struggles in the power loom industry to the DMK government, and accusing the Congress of lacking understanding of ground realities. Annamalai urged Ramesh to direct his questions towards the ruling DMK government in Tamil Nadu and emphasized the BJP’s efforts in aiding MSMEs in Tamil Nadu.
On 19 March 2024, Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh released a statement through his official X account, stating that, “The Prime Minister is visiting Salem, Tamil Nadu and Palakkad, Kerala today. Some important questions that he must address:
1. While the Prime Minister has been visiting Tamil Nadu frequently in the last few weeks, he has historically paid little attention to the state. For instance, he did not set foot here during the Cyclone Michaung crisis in December 2023. The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has repeatedly urged for the release of Rs. 37,907 crores from the Modi Sarkar for rehabilitation and reconstruction after the cyclone. Does the Prime Minister plan to fulfill this critical need of the people of Tamil Nadu?
2. During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Salem, he will hopefully notice the numerous textile factories that have either shut down and disposed of machinery or reduced working hours for laborers. After having single-handedly destroyed India’s MSME manufacturing capacities with demonetization, GST, and the unplanned COVID-19 lock-down, what is the Prime Minister’s vision to rescue these textile factories?
3. Kerala is the state that the Prime Minister had infamously compared to Somalia. Kerala’s performance on development indicators has been consistently better than *all* Indian states. Will the Prime Minister finally apologize to the people of Kerala for his misleading commentary on the state?
4. Kerala is home to the Western Ghats, an extremely fragile but important ecosystem. In the last 10 years, under Modi’s tutelage, there have been continuous assaults on its ecosystem. The Modi Government has diluted all environment and forest laws to help a few favored corporates, and perhaps to repay the debts incurred for their purchase of the BJP’s electoral bonds. Will the Prime Minister come clean on what his motivations were when he was diluting our environmental protection regime to favor his corporate friends?”
The Prime Minister is visiting Salem, Tamil Nadu and Palakkad, Kerala today. Some important questions that he must address:
1. While the Prime Minister has been visiting Tamil Nadu frequently in the last few weeks, he has historically paid little attention to the state. For…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) March 19, 2024
The Tamil Nadu BJP president, K Annamalai, promptly busted the allegations and released a statement via his official handle on social media platform X that, “Thiru @Jairam_Ramesh, known for banning the pride of TN, the Jallikattu, has a newfound affection for Tamil Nadu (Understandable as elections are around the corner). Sitting in an ivory tower, Congress leaders do not see the ground reality. Neither have they changed nor their poll promise of “Roti, Kapada, Makkan” since the 1980s.
1. The flood relief sought by TN is not ₹37,907 Crore but ₹15,645 Crore (Confirmed by the Ministry of Finance in the Lok Sabha). The total SDRF fund available with the TN Govt was ₹2013 Crore & ₹3406 Crore was the total flood relief work carried out by the DMK Govt. We asked the DMK Govt to furnish the breakup of the ₹37,907 Crore inflated flood relief they sought but are faced with defeating silence.
We request Thiru @Jairam_Ramesh to ask his alliance partner to furnish the necessary details before politicising this matter. Does Thiru @Jairam_Ramesh know that the DMK Govt claimed completion of 99% of stormwater drain works in Chennai before the floods and flipped to 42% after the floods? Is scamming people the single-point agenda of the I.N.D.I. Alliance?
2. The Powerloom industry in Tamil Nadu is struggling due to the gross inefficiency of the DMK Government. Electricity tariff increased between 15 to 50%, Peak hour charges were increased from 35/KW to 150/KW, and there was a phenomenal increase in fixed charges.
Recently, @BJP4TamilNadu exposed the monumental corruption of the DMK Government in the Free Dhoti scheme & regardless of it, the Handloom & Textile Minister of Tamil Nadu continues to exploit the handloom & powerloom weavers of Tamil Nadu by taking a fixed fee as commission for orders placed to them.
When the Ambattur industrial estate was flooded due to the incapability of the DMK Govt, our Hon FM Smt @nsitharaman avl swiftly arranged the necessary assistance from the insurance companies to help them restart their business activity.
This is one of the many instances that we could quote! Thiru @Jairam_Ramesh , please do your homework right & your questions should be posted to DMK & not our Hon PM Thiru @narendramodi avl. And please look into the quantum of assistance/loans issued to MSMEs in TN through PM Mudra, PMEGP & MSME Credit Guarantee programmes before pointing fingers the next time.”
Thiru @Jairam_Ramesh, known for banning the pride of TN, the Jallikattu, has a newfound affection for Tamil Nadu (Understandable as elections are around the corner). Sitting in an ivory tower, Congress leaders do not see the ground reality. Neither have they changed nor their… https://t.co/BiL10iyzi5
— K.Annamalai (மோடியின் குடும்பம்) (@annamalai_k) March 19, 2024
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