Shah's speech on Tamil Nadu ‘blatant lies': A Raja
Amit Shah is trying to disturb the peace in a harmonious state like Tamil Nadu, said DMK's A Raja on Monday while emphasising that the Union home minister's speech attacking them a day ago were'blatant lies'.
'His speech was three things — disgusting, blatant lies without evidence and divisive,' Raja said in a press conference. Shah in Madurai on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the MK Stalin-led DMK government for 'rising corruption, crimes against women and drug mafia' over the last four years and said that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would form the government in Tamil Nadu in the 2026 assembly elections.
'Their communal politics does not work here. People of Tamil Nadu have repeatedly shown the BJP that their politics will not be accepted here,' Raja said. He added that they are not afraid of Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ' We are not afraid of Shah and Modi. Afterall, they are ordinary people. Why are they not able to win here? Because we have an ideology that is an alternative to theirs. As long as Dravidian ideology exists, they cannot gain a foothold here. We are not Delhi, Maharashtra and Haryana. We are Tamil Nadu, we are Dravidam, they (BJP) cannot come here.'
Raja rebutted Shah's speech point by point and listed chief minister MK Stalin's achievement while adding that the BJP-led Union government is creating confusion over the delimitation process. On Shah urging people to participate in large numbers on June 22 for BJP's conference on Lord Murugan in Madurai, Raja said that the people know that it is to whip up communal sentiments. 'You are not conducting this for the unity of Hindus but to bring in religious divide by going against Islam, Christianity and marginalised people,' the Lok Sabha MP said.
Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) chief S Seeman too said that the BJP should not politicise Tamil deity Lord Murugan. 'There is a value for Murugan in the state. Why didn't BJP speak of his glory all these days,' Seeman told reporters. 'You take up Rama in Uttar Pradesh, Puri Jagannath in Odisha, Aiyyappa in Kerala, and then Murugan here. Do you think people here will be deceived?'
In response, the BJP said Shah ensured that the BJP forms the government in Haryana, Maharashtra and Delhi. 'He has come to Tamil Nadu to pack off the DMK in the 2026 assembly elections,' BJP's Tamil Nadu chief Nainar Nagendran said.
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