As Kanimozhi mentions Draupadi, Sitharaman raises Jayalalithaa’s humiliation ‘by DMK MLAs’

Women suffering in Delhi, Manipur, Rajasthan, or anywhere else in the country, we’ll have to take it seriously & without playing any politics over it.

But I want to remind this House of one incident which happened on 25th March 1989. In the Tamil Nadu Assembly, Jayalalithaa’s… pic.twitter.com/4BitdjmmVH

— Nirmala Sitharaman Office (@nsitharamanoffc) August 10, 2023

Sitharaman said she wanted to remind the entire House of the incident that took place in 1989, when the former chief minister was leader of the Opposition in Tamil Nadu. “That day Jayalalithaa took an oath that she will not return to the House unless she becomes chief minister and two years later, she returned as the chief minister,” the BJP leader added.

Sitharaman also responded to another remark made by the DMK MP, who a day earlier asked the central government whether it knew Tamil Nadu’s history and the story of Kannagi, the central character of the Tamil epic Silapathikaram.

“It was lost in history and kept in some kind of a museum which says it’s a walking stick. That doesn’t hurt Tamil pride? Is that not an insult to the Tamils? So when the honourable prime minister restored it to its rightful place in Lok Sabha it becomes an issue?” Sitharaman said, referring to the sceptre installed in the new Parliament.

The Union minister further said that for several decades, on the pretext of protesting against Hindi “imposition”, the people of Tamil Nadu were stopped from learning Hindi or Sanskrit. “You never let any of us learn Hindi or Sanskrit,” she said, pointing at the Opposition.

When the Opposition raised the delay in the construction of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Madurai, Sitharaman blamed the state government for it, adding that the delay in the land acquisition had pushed up the project cost. “The total project cost is Rs 1,977.80 crore and the loan amount is Rs 1,627 crore,” she said.

AIIMS மதுரையில் கட்டப்படுகிறது. 1977 கோடி செலவில் கட்டப்படும் இந்த மருத்துவமனையில் 1627 கோடிக்கான கடனை மத்திய அரசு கட்டுகிறது. இந்தக் கடனை மத்திய அரசு தீர்த்து வைக்கும். தமிழ்நாடு அரசுக்கு எந்தவிதமான கடன் தொல்லையும் இல்லை. இந்தக் கடன் மத்திய அரசுடையது, தமிழ்நாடு அரசுடையது அல்ல.… pic.twitter.com/C2jIm45pkd

— Nirmala Sitharaman Office (@nsitharamanoffc) August 10, 2023

“There is no need for Tamil Nadu to worry whether we are borrowing or whether we are building out of our own funds. It’s part of our fiscal management, and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) is one of external borrowing and it doesn’t undermine the importance of AIIMS that is getting built in Madurai,” she said in a reply to senior DMK MP T R Balu’s reported remark asking whether it was not shameful on the part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to borrow from Japan. There is no burden on the Tamil Nadu government, she added.

The DMK MPs then staged a walkout from the House.

Sitharaman also said that whereas other AIIMS had 750 beds each, the one coming up in Madurai would have 900 beds as an infectious disease block was also getting added. She also said that MBBS classes started on a temporary campus in April 2022.