Tamil Nadu minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan calls audio fabricated, says bid to split DMK will fail

Thiaga Rajan said that “desperate” attempts to cause a rift in the DMK would never succeed. He criticised BJP state president K Annamalai, who put out the audio on social media on Tuesday, saying that the latter had “descended to posting an audio of somebody telling nobody about some others and this is the base level of his politics”.

Thiaga Rajan said that under Chief Minister M K Stalin’s leadership, the government had delivered “record-breaking, innovative and compassionate” administration in the two years since the DMK assumed power. He said that in two years, the government had initiated major financial reforms which were not attempted in the past decade.

“These results are also superior to what the Union government has achieved in the last decade. Certain forces are unable to digest these achievements, so they are indulging in using advanced technologies and cheap tactics such as releasing these fabricated audios to disrupt our good work,” he added.

Talking about Udhayanidhi Stalin, Stalin’s son and the minister for youth welfare and sports development, he said the latter was the hope for the next generation and had received a great reception from Tamil people.

“His outstanding performance as a minister has surpassed all our expectations. He is making Tamil Nadu the centre of attention of the international sports world,” he said, adding that all the ministers had been working as a cohesive team to achieve spectacular results and that Sabareesan, Stalin’s son-in-law, had been his most trusted advisor since his early days in public life. He asked why he would say anything negative about any of them.

“Such fabricated audios are being generated in a vain attempt to cast aspersions on them. There is a desperate attempt by a blackmail gang to achieve their political ambitions by creating a rift within us. Such cowardly attempts will never succeed,” he said.

In the audio clip, less than a minute long, Thiaga Rajan purportedly spoke about money management and how he had been a long-time proponent of the one-man, one-post rule and how he liked the BJP for following it.

A few days ago, the first part of the audio was released and Thiaga Rajan called that “doctored” as well. He issued a two-page statement saying that given the ability to fabricate clips using advanced technology, people should not be surprised to see more audio and even video clips in the coming days. He also attached images of audio forensic analysis and sound spectrum analysis claiming the audio clip was doctored.

Two days ago, a BJP delegation met Governor R N Ravi over the audio clip. Annamalai tweeted photos of the delegates calling on the governor and wrote, “Leaders of BJP Tamil Nadu met the Honourable Governor of TN Thiru RN Ravi avl today requesting an enquiry to be ordered in the audio tape of the State Finance Minister mentioning that the DMK 1st family made Rs 30,000 crores in a years thru corrupt means.”