Demanding job did me in, says Kumar

On the charge that he had failed to effectively prevent tax proceedings against Jayalalitha, Kumar said such efforts were unnecessary in a system which provided for appeals against assessment orders to senior officials, to the appellate tribunal and the courts.

“First, they said I was interfering with the cases. Now, I am being charged with not doing enough to help her. It is all self-contradictory,” he said.

Expressing surprise over “insinuations” that Jayalalitha was unhappy with him, Kumar said the AIADMK was a monolithic party where there was no scope for any differences with theleadership.

“Where does the question of any pressure being put by my leader to procure my resignation arise?” he asked. “All of us are willing to do anything that she wants us to do even jump from the third floor,” he added.

Kumar, an insulin-dependent patient, said he had underestimated the workload of a Union minister and had not realised how demanding it would be.

“Having been a workaholic for 27 years, I took my job seriously and have been trying to remove some defects in the system,” the chartered accountant said.

On suggestions in the media that he was not really ill, Kumar said: “Why should I feign illness? I have been a diabetic for two decades.”

His father had died of diabetes at the age of 49 and his mother lost her eyesight due to the same illness, he said.