News Tamil Nadu

PTR Speaks Rudely To AIADMK Leaders, Apologizes Later, Puts Self-Aggrandizing Tweets After That

October 16, 2022
The Commune

After a video of Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan speaking rudely to AIADMK MLA Sellur Raja and later apologizing went viral, the former has put out a tweet comparing himself to Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevera.

On Friday (October 14), a review meeting was conducted at the Madurai District Collector’s office to discuss the 10 demands made by the MLAs as part of the “Chief Minister in Your Constituency” program.

Madurai District Collector Aneesh Shekhar presided over the meeting. The meeting was attended by Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan, the Minister of Commercial Tax and Registration Department Murthy, the MLAs Sellur K. Raju, VV Rajan Chellappa, RB Udayakumar, Periya Pullan, Thalapathy Venkatesan, Bhoominathan, and Ayyappan, the Corporation Commissioner Simranjeet Singh, and all departmental staff members.

The review meeting was conducted to look into the possibility of implementing demands made by the MLAs.

Former AIADMK Minister Sellur K Raju who is now an MLA of Madurai West constituency questioned the usefulness of holding project review meetings under the “Chief Minister In Your Constituency” scheme and soliciting MLAs’ feedback without allocating any funds.

After each MLA spoke about issues in their constituency, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan took the floor. PTR was merely reading statistics that came across as the justifications for not meeting the MLAs’ requests. Not satisfied with Finance Minister’s response, ADMK MLA Sellur said, “We are communicating the issues of the people. Don’t give explanations instead of solutions,” and staged a walk out along with other ADMK MLAs.

After being stunned, Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiyagarajan responded furiously and said to MLA Sellur Raju, “I was listening to you when you spoke. so you have to sit when I speak.” The video of the meeting shows that former minister Sellur Raju was visibly offended by the DMK Minister PTR Palanivel Thiyagarajan’s rude behavior. Later, MLA Sellur Raju was pacified by the Minister of Commercial Tax, Murthy.

MLA Sellur Raju said, “You should speak like a people’s representatives and not like government officers.”

AIADMK MLA RB Udhaya Kumar, who interrupted, remarked to Minister Murthy, “We came here because of your invitation. What new scheme are you going to implement now that you have terminated the already existing scheme which was giving assistance to ₹2 lakh senior citizens in Madurai?”

Realizing that the situation was getting out of control, PTR Palanivel Thiyagarajan said, “If it upsets you, I won’t say anything. I’m not accusing anyone here or the previous government. Its not my intention to offend former ministers. If anything I said offended anyone, I retract my words and end my speech.”

 

This rude behaviour of DMK Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan has invited criticism from the public. Condemning minister Thiaagarajan’s behaviour, the BJP TN State President of IT and Social Media CTR Nirmal Kumar questioned, “Don’t you know stage manners?”

After the video of this episode went viral on social media, PTR tweeted that he had a tough day and that he had seen worser days.

“Yesterday was tough, but I’ve had tough days before-some a LOT worse (9/11, GFC) & will have many more The good fight is never easy. Anything that easy, would have been done by now I’ve been an agent of change all my life And change is inevitable Other days will be better”., he wrote on his Twitter.

After this tweet, he posted another tweet in which he compared himself to Argentina-born Cuban revolutionary leader Che Guevera.

This tweet of has led people to resort to speculations on whether he is targeting the DMK high command.

It also gains significance in light of PTR’s recent speech in which he said that he doesn’t have to be anyone’s slave.

One user also satirically wrote that there can be only one ‘Che Guevara of Tamil Nadu’ and that he is from Chepauk, implying to be CM Stalin’s son and Chepauk-Tiruvallikeni MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin.

(With inputs from Hindu Tamil)

Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.