Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan has responded to the audio clip controversy which had stunned the ruling DMK because of the scandalous content.
An audio clip alleged to be that of DMK Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan had surfaced on social media on 19 April 2023 in which he is believed to have accused members of MK Stalin’s family of making more money in one year than they’ve made during their life time.
“Both Udhay and Sabari have realised, they have made more money in one year than they [unclear] entire lives and now it’s getting to be a problem, how to handle it, how to not get caught, how to get payments here.. [unclear] Its all being made gradually? 10 to 20 crores.. assuming we will say 5000/30000 crores.. [unclear]. How can you [unclear] 5000/30000 crores without paying any [unclear]”, the audio clip supposedly of PTR says. (Some say the amount mentioned in the audio is 5000 crores while others note it is 30000).
The audio clip had surfaced amidst Tamil Nadu BJP K. Annamalai accusing DMK leaders of gaining disproportionate assets over the years.
Responding to the controversy, Palanivel Thiagarajan as usual started the statement about his credentials and how he has graduated from heading his party’s IT wing since its inception to being a first-time Minister.
“My portfolios in the state cabinet do not allow me the luxury, energy or bandwidth to continuously engage with social media and to post rebuttals to the outrageous mudslinging that occurs there”, he starts the statement with these lines.
Contrary to his statements, PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan is known for being very active on social media and often indulges in personal attacks on public personalities or sometimes even common netizens who question him.
He further states that at the time of the audio clip release he was presenting the Demand for Grants for four departments in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
He said that being a strong proponent of free speech, he never filed any police complaint or defamation suits for personal attacks on him.
However, he acknowledges in the next line that he had filed a police complaint once as a deterrent as an Opposition MLA when someone had made comments about his ancestors.
“Several allegations have been made against me on social media in these last two years. From relatively minor accusations like being high-handed, to being obstructionist, to being incompetent to do my job, to very serious charges like being corrupt indirectly through others, and finally to being personally corrupt (e.g. collecting 1% fee for every file I sign). As consistency is the hallmark of good character, I have never reacted to any of these accusations.”, he said.
He alleged that there is conspiracy to drive a wedge between him and the DMK’s first family.
“Now having failed at painting me as a villain in the public sphere, there seems to be a change of strategy: to paint me as a lone crusader, a reluctant whistle-blower, a pseudo-martyr. I want to reiterate here that whatever I am, and whatever I have done in public life is because of my leader DMK President and Honourable Chief Minister MK Stalin and no malicious attempts to divide us will ever succeed.”, he said.
Citing two alleged ‘technical analysis’ of the clip, he said that the audio clip was not authentic. He also said that the with the ability to create fabricated and/or machine-generated clips using advanced technology he wouldn’t be surprised to see more such audio or video with even more malicious content.
He said that this will be the only and final statement on this issue.
My statement on the 26-second malicious fabricated audio clip pic.twitter.com/KM85dogIgh
— Dr P Thiaga Rajan (PTR) (@ptrmadurai) April 22, 2023
Reacting to PTR’s statement, BJP President K. Annamalai said that only “DMK IT Wing dimwits” would believe whatever has been said by the DMK Minister.
“State FM Thiru @ptrmadurai read through the half-baked defences in social media made by DMK IT Wing for two days, prepared it as a statement & has put it out.”, Annamalai said.
He also said that PTR is relying on ‘audio analysis’ done by DMK IT wing ‘dimwits’.
State FM Thiru @ptrmadurai read through the half-baked defences in social media made by DMK IT Wing for two days, prepared it as a statement & has put it out.
Relying upon the fake audio analysis done by @arivalayam party’s IT Wing’s dimwits is used as a defence by a State FM… https://t.co/EBvjVEpRGr
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) April 22, 2023
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