Days after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah to list out the achievements of the Centre in Tamil Nadu over the last nine years, state BJP chief K Annamalai on Monday slammed Stalin and said, “You are in this position because of the word ‘Dynasty’. Please, don’t lecture us on democracy.”

MK Stalin had criticised the central government, a day before Amit Shah’s visit to Chennai. He said, “For the past two days, I have been reading in newspapers that the Union Home Minister is coming to Chennai. All this is a part of their preparation for the 2024 elections. However, I want to ask if he can give me a list of things the Centre has done for the benefit of Tamil Nadu in the last nine years?”

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Turning his attention to the BJP’s track record in Tamil Nadu, Stalin accused the party of imposing Hindi and Sanskrit, neglecting the Tamil language, and implementing the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), which he claimed to have adversely affected students.

Replying to this, K Annamalai took to Twitter and said, “Your party had made sure Tamil language & culture never crossed the borders of TN & that we believe is the greatest disservice to the world’s oldest language, our Tamil.”

“Our PM Thiru @narendramodi avl has taken it across the whole globe. Finally, our language is getting the attention & richness it truly deserves. If somebody can talk about ‘Tamil’, you should probably be the last person talking about it with a ‘foreign name’ attached to you,” he added.

He further slammed him for playing out dynasty politics in the state and said, “You are in this position because of the word ‘Dynasty’ and your surname ‘Karunanidhi’. Pls, don’t lecture us on democracy. In your @arivalayam party, the basic criteria are that they have to be born in your Gopalapuram home, that’s why Hon HM mentioned your family as 3G (3 Generation Dynast) and your partner @INCIndia as 4G (4 Generation Dynast).”

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Amit Shah’s salvo against MK Stalin

On Sunday, Amit Shah retorted to MK Stalin’s statement while addressing a rally in Vellore and said, “MK Stalin, I have come here to give you a list of work we have done in nine years. Please open your ears and listen to it. If you have the courage, respond to this tomorrow.”

Shah said between 2004 and 2014, when Stalin was part of the Congress-led UPA government, the devolution of funds for Tamil Nadu was Rs 95,000 crore, which spiralled to Rs 2,47,000 crore under PM Modi’s government in the past nine years.

He said the grant in aid given to the state during the UPA era was Rs 58,000 crore, which rose four times to Rs 2,31,000 crore.

“Yesterday, I heard Stalin asking why Madurai AIIMS has not been constructed yet. For 18 years, the DMK was part of the UPA. They need to answer why they were not able to build AIIMS in Tamil Nadu?” asked the Union Home Minister.