Stalin's 3-month survival remarks on TVK govt 'not made with intent' to topple it, says DMK

The DMK on Tuesday sought to clarify party chief M K Stalin's remarks on the TVK government's survival, saying his comments that the C Joseph Vijay-led dispensation would not continue for more than three months were not borne out of any intent to topple the government.

DMK senior leader and former minister Thangam Thennarasu said there was no "intent to dissolve or topple the government," behind Stalin's remarks. Stalin on Sunday claimed that the TVK government in Tamil Nadu may not survive beyond three months. "I need not say much about the kind of government currently in power. When it assumed office, I had said I would not criticise it for six months. However, there is now a fear that circumstances may force me to speak sooner," the former chief minister had said.

Thennarasu claimed "Stalin had stated that we would not criticise the current government for six months and he remarked that the government was proceeding in such a precarious condition that it might not even last three months." "When reporters asked leaders of various political parties about this, they said that the DMK leader should not have spoken that way. In reality, our leader never said the government would collapse, nor is that his stance", the DMK leader said in a party statement. "This is precisely what the leader (Stalin) highlighted in his speech and not out of any intent to dissolve or topple the government", he said. Stalin "essentially meant that the government is operating under a cloud of uncertainty regarding whether it will even survive for three months."

"But watching daily reports of murders, robberies, machete attacks, drug trafficking, power cuts, farmers' protests and sexual violence, how could they remain silent. It was in that context he (Stalin) said one wonders whether the government can even last three months," Thennarasu claimed.

He said that it has been a month since the new government took office in Tamil Nadu and during this period, TV and newspaper reports were dominated by murders, robberies, sexual assaults, and drug trafficking. "Functionaries of the ruling party itself are implicated in various criminal incidents," he claimed.