Wrong for anyone, not just Amit Shah, to make adverse comment on Ambedkar: Palaniswami

AIADMK’s Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Saturday said that it would be wrong if anyone, not just Union Minister for Home Affairs Amit Shah, made any adverse comment on B.R. Ambedkar, who has been regarded as the architect of the Constitution of India.

Interacting with journalists after taking part in the Christmas celebration organised by the the party in Kilpauk here, Mr. Palaniswami said the AIADMK’s position on the matter had been clarified by his colleague and organisation secretary, D. Jayakumar.  

Referring to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s criticism on the issue of tungsten, Mr. Palaniswami reiterated his position that the Chief Minister had not yet answered his question as to whether the government took up the issue of tungsten mining before people in Melur area of the Madurai district, protested against any move to undertake the mining. 

Dismissing the charge against his party for being soft towards the BJP, the AIADMK general secretary recalled that when the BJP government, at the Centre, was taking time for the constitution of implementation mechanism on the Cauvery Water Disptues Tribunal’s final award, his party’s 37 MPs had stalled the functioning of Lok Sabha for 22 days, as a result of which the Central government had set up the mechanism.  On the contrary, it was the DMK, which had been adopting the “double standard” vis-a-vis  the BJP. “Did it not have [Defence Minister Rajnath Singh] for the release of centenary commemorative coin for M. Karunanidhi”he asked.

Emphasising that secularism remained an important tenet of the AIADMK, Mr. Palaniswami, in his speech at the celebration, said that in the event of his party’s victory in the 2026 Assembly poll, the new regime would take all steps for providinbg privileges and concessions, “being denied” by the government to Dalit Christians.