Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin.
Credit: PTI File Photo
The BJP's corrupt face should be exposed, DMK President and Chief Minister M K Stalin said here on Sunday and appealed to party cadres to work hard for the victory of the INDIA alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a grand party meet, 'Mupperum Vizha', Stalin said the BJP regime in the past nine years has given only sorrow to the people. As per a recent CAG report, there have been 'irregularities' of Rs 7.50 lakh crore, he said, speaking the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that flagged discrepancies amounting to Rs 7.50 lakh crore in the implementation of various schemes by the BJP-led central government The Central Vigilance Commission itself has 'given data' that it is the CBI officers who face more allegations of corruption (than those they are investigating).
"They (the BJP) are trying to hide such a face of corruption. The mask covering the face of corruption should be torn apart and, 'this is the primary duty in front of us," he said.
Expressing confidence about winning all 39 Lok Sabha constituencies in Tamil Nadu and the lone segment in Puducherry, he said the scale of victory in all other parts of the country should be of similar scale. "Let us strive for the victory of INDIA alliance."
Stalin cited the rise in the price of cooking gas and fuel from 2014 till now and said that the Centre's borrowing has risen by about Rs 100 lakh crore, whereas India's debt burden was only Rs 55 lakh crore when the BJP assumed power at the Centre in 2014. In BJP's rule, the debt has risen to Rs 155 lakh crore, he said, adding that petrol cost Rs 71 per litre in 2014 while today it is Rs 102 a litre.
The issue of rising inflation and the 'BJP government' (banks) writing off about Rs 14 lakh crore bad loans were the other points he underlined.
Mupperum Vizha -- three events together -- celebrates the birth anniversaries of reformist leader Periyar E V Ramasamy (Sept 17) and Dravidian icon C N Annadurai (Sept 15) and the founding day (Sept 17) of the DMK.
The (2023-24) centenary celebrations of late party patriarch M Karunanidhi (1924-2018) and the commencement of the 75th year of the party's founding (September 17, 1949) is also being celebrated by the DMK.