DMK-Congress make up after 'sharing spectrum loot': Jayalalithaa

Chennai: AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa has once again hit out at political rival DMK. "The DMK and the Congress, which successfully shared the Spectrum loot between themselves, have ironed out all differences and come to an understanding on sharing of seats for the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections," she has said.

Here's the full text of her statement:

Press Statement of  Selvi J JAYALALITHAA, General Secretary AIADMK, Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,  Leader of the Opposition - Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly

The farce has been played out. The cat is finally out of the bag. The truth is now there for all to see. The DMK and the Congress, which successfully shared the Spectrum loot between themselves, have ironed out all differences and come to an understanding on sharing of seats for the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly elections.

The theatrics that we saw over the last few days might have surprised the media and the cadres of the Congress and the DMK. The leader of the DMK expresses unhappiness over the number of seats demanded by the Congress. He then threatens to pull his party out of the UPA coalition Government in Delhi. The DMK's Union Ministers take a flight to Delhi, ostensibly to present their resignation letters. But the resignation letters do not come out of their pockets. Instead, a rapprochement is worked out...
In the process, for a whole week, the media and the people were made to forget about the Spectrum investigations. They were made to forget about price rise and a myriad other problems. That is vintage Karunanidhi!!

The whole drama comes as no surprise to me. We saw this happen earlier, at the time of ministry formation at the Centre in 2009.  Karunanidhi flew to Delhi. He put forth his demands. When the Congress leadership resisted, he flew into pretended rage. He returned to Chennai, apparently in a huff, with all his MPs in tow, boycotting the swearing-in ceremony of the Prime Minister. The bluff paid off and Karunanidhi got plum ministerial berths for his son Azhagiri, his nephew Dayanidhi Maran and his favourite daughter's close associate, A Raja!

All this muscle-flexing is mere drama. When it comes to issues relating to the public -- like when hapless, innocent Tamils are massacred in Sri Lanka; like when Karnataka refuses to give Tamil Nadu its due share of Cauvery water; like when Kerala refuses to implement the Supreme Court directive on Mullai Periyar; like when the Centre keeps repeatedly hiking petroleum prices precipitating a cascading effect on the prices of all products; like when Indian fishermen are massacred at sea; like when farmers driven into a debt trap are pushed to suicide -- Karunanidhi never threatens to pull out of the Central government. He merely sends letters to the Prime Minister. But when he wants plum ministerial postings for his children and sundry relatives, when his near and dear ones are likely to be picked up by the CBI for siphoning away national resources, then Karunanidhi will put up a show of bravado citing some other reasons. And the Congress leadership will put up a show of defiance to fool its innocent grassroots cadres and then capitulate giving the impression that the week-long face-off was for the sake of two or three legislature seats!

The DMK party has become a major source of mortification to the Congress. The DMK's A Raja, as Union telecom minister, presided over the world's largest scam - the Rs 1,76,000 Crore Spectrum Scam. The trail of the money siphoned out from this scam led to the door of DMK supremo Karunanidhi's household. The DMK's T R Baalu, as Union minister for Shipping and Surface Transport, was instrumental in pushing the Rs 2,400 Crore Sethusamudram project, which was launched with great fanfare but never took off. All that money has gone into the deep pockets of the DMK leadership and is today invested in distilleries, duty-free shops, hotels and educational institutions. The DMK's Dayanidhi Maran was responsible for using his clout as the then Union Telecom Minister to ensure heavy inflow of funds into the business empire of his brother, which has now expanded beyond television to take over the cinema and airlines industries as well. The controversial appointment of P.J. Thomas as the Central Vigilance Commissioner, which invited embarrassing strictures from the Supreme Court was again at the behest of the DMK leadership... And the poor Congress cadres in the State have to go around, from door to door, canvassing votes for the very people who have been the cause for so much embarrassment to them and their leaders.

The people of Tamil Nadu have started seeing through all these games. This is indicated by the feedback I have been getting from every village and town in the State. This is reflected in the myriad SMSs and e-mails being exchanged by the techno-savvy generation. But mere awareness is not enough. Every voter of Tamil Nadu should come out and cast his or her precious vote. Otherwise the Tirumangalam Formula, the Sivaganga Formula and a host of other formulas which do not figure in our textbooks will be enacted all over again.
At this determining moment in Tamil Nadu politics, I call upon all the voters to awake, arise, unite and make sure that the life of future generations of the Tamil people is secure, prosperous and bright.

J JAYALALITHAA