The Sri lankan Tamil issue will no more carry weight with Tamil Nadu voters, according to Anbumani Ramadoss, chief ministerial candidate of the Pattali Makkal Katchi, a political outfit promoted by Vanniyars. Addressing a mammoth crowd at Virudachalam, 230 km south of Chennai on Saturday, Anbumani said most political parties in Tamil Nadu including the DMK are now campaigning for prohibition because the Sri lankan Tamil issue has fizzled out.
“The last couple of elections proved that voters in Tamil Nadu are not interested in the Sri lankan Tamil issue. The PMK has been campaigning relentlessly for total prohibition in the State for more than three decades. The number of women attending this meeting is ample proof of the importance of prohibition,” pointed out Anbumani. The crowd which turned up for the road side meeting at Virudachalam had more women underlining the significance of PMK’s campaign for prohibition.
Anbumani pointed out that Tamil Nadu consumes more liquor than other States in the country. “Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 21.5 crore earns Rs 11000 crore per year as revenue from liquor. But Tamil Nadu, which has a population of 7.6 crore earns Rs 28,000 crore per year from liquor sales. There are more young widows in Tamil Nadu because of liquor consumption,” said Anbumani. He also said that every year, the State is losing Rs 1,21,000 crore as medical and accident expenses as fallout of liquor consumption. Quoting from National Crimes Data Bureau, the PMK leader said that Tamil Nadu was leading the country in the number of murders and suicides.
Be blamed M Karunanidhi, the nonagenarian DMK leader for making liquor available in the State which had been a State without liquor. “Karunanidhi was Chief Minister for five terms. All he has done was to overturn prohibition and destroy two to three generations of Tamil people,” he said.
Anbumani charged that Karunanidhi’s new found love for prohibition was to deceive the electorate with an eye on the election. The PMK’s Chief Ministerial candidate has been drawing large crowds in all his meetings. He addressed four regional conferences, 17 public meetings and seven anti-prohibition rallies. All these meetings drew mammoth crowd and this has rattled the DMK making Stalin to declare that he would tour all the 234 Assembly constituencies.
He has been attracting mammoth crowd in all the meetings addressed by him which has also drawn out many women. This has sent alarm bells in the DMK, where a power struggle is on between Karunanidhi and son Stalin for the top post of the State. The meetings addressed by Stalin, the chosen heir of Karunanidhi , had been damp squibs compared to the meetings of Anbumani.