Is Stalin off to London again?

An online Tamil news portal Minnambalam on Sunday (June 21) carried a story about DMK President MK Stalin making arrangements for leaving to London on a chartered flight. It had mentioned that the DMK leader was in touch with the Centre to get the necessary clearance for the same considering the restrictions in air travel in view of the pandemic. However, this story was later withdrawn and the portal carried a clarification article from the DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan.

Since 2010, MK Stalin’s frequent trips to London make it to the headlines as a personal trip. Ask any person ranging from a commoner to those in moving closely with politicians about Mr. Stalin’s foreign visits, the unanimous response would be that the DMK leader goes for taking medical treatment. Every year, Mr. Stalin prepares to leave for abroad after the debate on demand for grants ends for the Budget session of the Assembly, Minnambalam had reported.

In 2017, Stalin left for London on August 12. Similarly, he went to London on July 9 in the year 2018. He did not go to London in 2019 but instead went to Singapore on June 14 of that year, the Minnambalam report said.

Minnambalam reported that even though the DMK President travelled in the months of July or August, Stalin’s team would start making arrangement 3 months in advance. They had made arrangements for this year too but the COVID19 pandemic that started spreading from China, Europe and now in India had suspended all international flights across the world.

The impact of the coronavirus has not diminished in the UK yet. As of now, the COVID alert level in the UK has been lowered from 4 to 3, which means that the virus is no longer judged to be “high or exponentially rising”. Though the curfew within the country is being gradually relaxed, restrictions on international travel have not been lifted yet.

On June 20, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri had stated that India can start international flights once domestic traffic reaches 50-60% provided other countries open up for international traffic. He mentioned of a calibrated opening once situation normalises.

As a result, Mr. Stalin’s international travel to London for medical treatment has been getting delayed. It was reported in Minnambalam that Mr. Stalin had got special permission from the hospital in London where he was to get treatment and that Mr. Stalin’s parties had requested the Centre to make arrangements for a chartered flight for the same.

Mr. Stalin is the Leader of Opposition of Tamil Nadu which is equal to the status of a Cabinet Minister of the State. It is on basis of this privilege that Mr. Stalin had written to External Affairs Minister Dr. Jaishankar for undertaking the trip to London on a chartered flight which has also gone to the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the report said quoting DMK’s inner circles.

It said that the request is right now under the Centre’s review.

However, this report was later withdrawn and the news portal came out with a clarification article saying that the DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan had reached out to Minnambalam with respect to the earlier story.

In the clarification article Mr. TKS Elangovan is quoted saying that the DMK President was to travel to London in February but got cancelled due to the prevailing international circumstances in view of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown across the country. Since, then Mr. Stalin had reportedly been engaging in relief work to reach out to those affected by the pandemic and the lockdown and also giving pressure to the Tamil Nadu government on various issues, Mr. Elangaovan had said.

He also said that Mr. Stalin does not have any plans to go to London as of now and also rejected the claims of placing requests with the Centre for the same. “We reject the news about requests being placed with the Centre on behalf of DMK President Stalin as reported in Minnambalam”.