TN Oppn walk out in protest against Karunanidhi’s remark

While Leader of the Opposition S Balakrishnan and AIADMK floor leader P R Sundaram strongly objected, Karunanidhi maintained that he did not say Jayalalitha would go to jail. “What I said was that some parties were expecting her (Jayalalitha) to go to jail. However, the AIADMK cadres are not the type to accept leadership of someone else; they are not gullible persons. In fact, I appreciated the ability of the AIADMK cadres,” the Chief Minister said sarcastically. Health Minister Arcot N Veerasamy added that Karunanidhi had only referred to "some persons" and had not named parties like TMC, CPI or CPM.

The issue came to an end when Balakrishnan and his party colleagues walked out of the House "protesting" against Karunanidhi’s "derogatory" remarks against the Opposition parties, and AIADMK, CPI, CPM and INL members followed suit. Earlier in the day, the TMC, and its alliance parties including the AIADMK, walked out in protest against the state government’s refusal to raise the sugarcane procurement price to Rs 1,000 per tonne, paddy price by Rs 100 per quintal and waive farmers’ cooperative loans. The members, who walked out when Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam moved the demand for grants for his department, returned a few minutes later.

After the TMC walked out for the second time, Karunanidhi said that the "some persons" he had referred to were not the TMC members, but by walking out of the House, the party members had converted this hypothesis into reality. “I thank them,” he said sarcastically.

The issue was created when Karunanidhi, referring to a member’s statement on the DMK’s resolution over that it would strive to bring about the required procurement price for the sugarcane farmers, said that what the party had promised in the election manifesto was more important. He said that the DMK had once passed a resolution seeking a separate Dravida Naadu, but had dropped it later. He said that the Congress party, during the leadership of A G Subramania Iyer, had also passed a resolution in support of the British rule, but had later changed its stand.

Referring to his promise of providing Rs 1,000 as sugarcane procurement price, he said: “Leave us to complete the five year term. We will fulfil the promise. Already the sugarcane farmers are paid over Rs 900 per tonne for 8.5 per cent recovery. All the promises cannot be fulfilled in just two or three years after coming to power. This regime is going to continue and it is not going to end,” and followed this with the Jayalalitha remark, which led to the walkout.