DMK slams Rahul Gandhi for damaging INDIA bloc unity

Tamil Nadu’s main Opposition DMK on Monday asked whether it was not shameful for the Congress party to pull off all kinds of “underhand tactics” to prevent INDIA bloc parties from coming to power in states where Assembly elections are held, and later seek support from them when the Lok Sabha polls are round the corner.

The DMK strongly criticised Congress, alleging it was “backstabbed” by the grand old party with its top leader Rahul Gandhi’s blessings in the April 23 Tamil Nadu Assembly polls and mocked at him for “lecturing unity” in the recent INDIA bloc meeting.

DMK’s official organ, ‘Murasoli’, in an editorial, said Rahul Gandhi has given a lecture on unity and termed it a case of belated enlightenment. “Isn’t Rahul himself the one who ruined this unity in every single State?” the daily asked.

On June 11, Rahul Gandhi released his speech at the INDIA bloc leaders’ meeting as the allegations made against the Congress by the constituent parties of the INDIA bloc spread widely in the public domain. A situation arose where the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha was under pressure to release his speech on the INC website.

The Left parties, the Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have fiercely criticised Rahul, highlighting how he acted in a manner that disrupted the unity of the opposition, the DMK mouthpiece further claimed.

The speech of John Brittas, a CPI (M) Rajya Sabha MP, is highly significant.

In Kerala, the Congress party and the CPI(M), with equal influence, contested against each other in the Assembly polls held in April, and no one blamed them for clashing head-on.

However, the allegation made by Rahul Gandhi was absurd, the DMK daily alleged.

During the campaign, Rahul had asked, “Why hasn’t PM Modi arrested Pinarayi Vijayan (then CM)? There is a secret deal between the two.” This accusation was flagged by the Marxist party as a serious allegation, it said.

Murasoli reproduced what it called criticism of Brittas in front of Rahul at the INDIA bloc meeting.

According to the DMK newspaper, Brittas alleged that during the Kerala Assembly campaign, Rahul had spoken blatant lies by claiming that there was a secret understanding between the Left and the BJP, adding that the Left did not need a certificate from the Congress to prove its anti-BJP stance. Referring to Rahul’s comment that “the Left is no longer the Left,” CPI general secretary D Raja slammed it, saying it showed the former’s political immaturity.

Though Rahul countered, saying he spoke based on facts and argued that it was the Left Government that brought Adani to Kerala, Left outfits had hit back, alleging it was the Congress that actually brought the conglomerate to the southern state.

Murasoli also quoted Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav as having emphasised that the exit of DMK and AAP from the INDIA bloc was a massive setback. Yadav had underlined that the matter be seriously analysed to figure out if the INDIA alliance should continue on this same path.

The DMK daily said RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had stated that he had doubts about whether there were secret understandings on many issues between Congress and BJP leaders in Bihar. Despite raising this with the Congress leadership multiple times, they took no action to rectify the situation.

According to Murasoli, Rahul had stated that he cannot hug Pinarayi Vijayan. “But isn’t he the very person who hugged Prime Minister Modi in Parliament. Can anyone forget that scene?” it asked.

“No one asked Rahul Gandhi to hug Pinarayi Vijayan. Instead, we are asking him to stop acting as an assistant to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Modi Government by demanding the arrest of Pinarayi Vijayan and other opposition leaders. That is not the job of an Opposition leader,” Marxist party general secretary Baby has alleged again, and what is Rahul’s answer to this, the DMK mouthpiece asked.

Against the backdrop of Congress walking out of the DMK-led alliance and joining the ruling TVK, Murasoli said everyone knew what happened in Tamil Nadu.

It alleged: “The backstabbing done by the Congress while staying in alliance with the DMK was carried out with Rahul’s blessings. Today, only after the leader of the party they joined gave them a slip by saying, “I won’t join the INDIA alliance,” Rahul is playing the good boy. “

“I will be 100 per cent true. I give an assurance to the DMK right now,” Murasoli quoted the top leader as saying.

It asked if it was not shameful for Congress to pull off all kinds of “underhand tactics” to prevent the INDIA bloc parties from coming to power in states where assembly elections are held, and later seek support from them when the Lok Sabha polls arrive.

Akhilesh, Tejashwi, Omar Abdullah, NCP, and VCK have all levelled allegations against the Congress regarding the way it treated the DMK, and Rahul did not expect this, the Dravidian party daily claimed.

“The reason why anti-Congress sentiment was discussed more than anti-BJP sentiment in a meeting gathered to oppose the BJP is entirely due to Rahul’s immaturity and lack of integrity,” it said and wanted him to own up to responsibility.

It quoted Rahul as saying that criticisms raised by the INDIA bloc parties against the Congress will be accepted.

“What difference does it make now whether he accepts the criticisms or not. Rahul says, just like Lord Shiva drank the poison, the Congress must swallow all criticisms.”

Even if we look at the mythological story he mentions, Shiva did not create the poison; the Devas (gods) and Asuras (demons) did. The poison emerged when churning the ocean of milk for nectar, and Lord Shiva drank it. But within the INDIA alliance, who was it that churned out poison instead of nectar, it asked.

Rahul had said: “...What is coming now, after what has happened in Iran, is uncontrollable. It is uncontrollable, and it is going to create a space for us to mobilise the masses. Also, get rid of the notion that we are not coordinated and do not act together. These are all ideas the BJP is putting out. This is not true -I am 100 per cent sure, and I can vouch right now for the DMK. When it comes to defending the idea of India, every single person will be in this room.”

“We have our fights, but if you are asking me to go and hug the ex-Chief Minister of Kerala -I cannot and I will not, because I have an ongoing political fight with him. So we have to be flexible, and we have to realise that there is a full-scale assault on us, trying to prove that the opposition is weak.”