nThe DMK-led front in Tamil Nadu has successfully completed the allocation of seats among its alliance partners but there is widespread discontentment among Congressmen across the State. To make matters short, Congress leaders and activists in Tamil Nadu are upset with MDMK leader Vaiko for humiliating and insulting former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Vaiko, whose original name was Vaiyapuri Gopalasamy, blamed Indira Gandhi in a recent speech for handing over the 285 acre Katchatheev islet to Sri Lanka.
He accused Indira Gandhi of cheating the State of Tamil Nadu by offering Katchatheevu to the island nation in 1975.
Earlier, he had blamed Jawaharlal Nehru for goofing up Kashmir issue and had lambasted the first Prime Minister of the country for cheating India.
Congressmen in Tamil Nadu consider the speeches made by Vaiko as blasphemy but they are afraid to question the party High Command for accommodating the MDMK leader in the INDI alliance. “When we pointed out the issue to the party leaders in New Delhi, they replied that the MDMK was an alliance partner of the DMK and the Congress has nothing to do with Vaiko and his MDMK,” a senior Congress leader told The Pioneer.
In 2019, Vaiko had lambasted Jawaharlal Nehru for the backwardness of the country and the Kashmir imbroglio. Though the then TNCC President K S Alagiri warned Vaiko for the low quality speech, the latter reportedly scoffed at him and asked who cares the TNCC chief.
“It is unfortunate that a person like Vaiko is resorting to spread lies and misinformation.
This is not going to help the DMK-led front or even the MDMK,” said C D Meyyappan, AICC leader who is the Congress-in-charge of the Andhra Pradesh election.
Though all Congress leaders with whom The Pioneer spoke to expressed their resentment over Vaiko, none was willing to come out in the open lest they annoy M K Stalin, the DMK chief who is the State’s Thalapathy (Tamil for commander).
Another alliance partner of the DMK-led front Thol Thirumavalavan (VCK leader) had declared many times that his mission was to destroy the Congress, the GOP has given him the pride of place in the INDI alliance. “A person who can never hope of winning an election on his own is sitting as a VIP in the alliance meeting convened to decide the future of the country,” said a former TNCC leader.
Interestingly, both Vaiko and Thirumavalavan are diehard devotees of Veluppillai Prabhakaran, the slain LTTE leader who ordered the execution of Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister. The trial court in India had declared Prabhakaran as an absconder and he was killed in an encounter with the sri Lankan defence forces in 2009.
The Vaiko-Thirumavalavan duo observe the death anniversary of Prabhakaran every year by lighting lamps and singing songs composed in praise of the LTTE chief. But the Congress suffers the humiliation silently because it has nowhere else to go.
Vaiko’s son Dorai Vaiyapuri is the MDMK candidate from Tiruchi Lok Sabha constituency.
If the Congress, which has a considerable presence in the constituency, silently pulls the rug out from Dorai’s feet, it would lead to the Vaiko junior’s New Delhi dreams getting shattered.
