Published Nov 17, 2024 | 8:00 AM ⚊ Updated Nov 18, 2024 | 12:40 PM
School students being presented with certificates of appreciation at the 71st All India Cooperative Week held at Nagapattinam.
Discontent within the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu spilled out in public when coalition MLAs criticised the state government for “deliberately” omitting the names of their leaders from invitation letters and plaques put up as part of official functions.
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLAs J Mohamed Shanavas and VP Nagaimaali expressed their discontent at the 71st Cooperative Week celebrations held in Nagapattinam on Friday, 15 November.
They vented their anger in the presence of Minister of School Education Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi.
Addressing the event, Nagaimaali sought to know why the names of alliance party leaders were ignored during official functions. “What is the reason for not putting Shanavas and my names on plaques placed at government events? We are people’s representatives. This is wrong,” he said.
Shanavas added that the names of alliance leaders have been missing for the past three years.
“For the past three years, the names of our people’s representatives have often been left out in government programmes. Such minor mistakes that officials make might end up somewhere else,” he said.
The VCK leader further pointed out that his name was excluded from another programme chart a week ago.
“They (the Opposition) took it to social media,” he said, saying political rivals will get mileage out of such acts.
Shanavas, however, did not hold the government or the DMK responsible for the “mistake”. “A mistake committed by some official gives the impression that the government is doing this deliberately. Is this the Dravidian model? Social justice,” he asked.
“A mistake made by an officer unnecessarily creates a crisis for the government and the administration. Make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he urged.
The MLA clarified that he was not demanding the inclusion of alliance leaders for fame. “I am not saying this because we want our names to come out. Placing a board on the street is not going to bring us fame,” he said, adding that no names should be left out according to protocol.
When contacted, Nagaimaali said the matter was “over yesterday”. He did not continue further.
Meanwhile, Minister Mahesh said such omissions mentioned by the legislators will not happen in future.
Political analyst Nandakumar Kathirvel said it was natural for alliance partners to demand due respect.
“Each party expects it to grow. But when DMK does not raise to their expectations, such frustrations will erupt,” he added.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
