With a brick in hand, DMK's Udhayanidhi 'brings' AIIMS Madurai to election rally

Holding a red brick in his hand, DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin told an election rally in southern Tamil Nadu on Tuesday that he has “brought” the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Madurai “along with him.”

The sarcasm in Udhayanidhi's statement -- there was nothing but a brick in the allotted land -- was not lost on anyone with the establishment of AIIMS in Tamil Nadu emerging as one of the election issues for the Opposition in southern districts. Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the institute in January 2019, months before he sought another mandate from people, construction has not yet started.

The delay in the construction of AIIMS is raked up by every Opposition party leader in Tamil Nadu to drive home their point that the AIADMK-BJP alliance does not walk their talk. In fact, the BJP made the establishment of AIIMS in Madurai as one of its “achievements” during 2019 polls to ward off criticism that the party-led government has ignored the interests of Tamil Nadu.

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“Do you remember the BJP-AIADMK governments constructed AIIMS in Madurai? I have brought the hospital along with me,” Udhayanidhi said, holding a red brick. He also shared a video clip of his speech in Sattur on his social media pages which has now gone viral.

'Cheap tactics', says BJP

However, the BJP has not taken the criticism lightly. Tamil Nadu BJP general secretary K T Raghavan dubbed Udhayanidhi's speech “cheap tactics” and said construction of a hospital is not like a three-hour movie.

“Locating the place itself took almost a year, and finally the foundation stone was laid in 2019. Funds have been allocated and the work will start soon. It is not a movie that you expect to be magic in under three hours. Did the DMK think of bringing AIIMS to Tamil Nadu when they were part of the UPA regime? They are actually envious of the BJP government,” Raghavan told DH.

Madurai Lok Sabha MP and writer Su Venkatesan, who had been raising the delay in Parliament since 2019, accused the state and central governments of never showing any interest in the project.

“The foundation stone for AIIMS was laid in 2019 and the land on which the institute will come up was transferred only in December 2020. Does a name transfer take two years? Also, the Centre is taking two years to sign MoU with JICA. Both do not have any interest in the project,” Venkatesan told DH.

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Evolution of AIIMS, Madurai

Thoppur, the village where Tamil Nadu's very own AIIMS will come up, is located on the National Highway connecting Madurai with Kanyakumari. With work on the institute yet to start, there is little activity in the area when this correspondent visited – many said they are looking forward to the hospital.

“We are told that this hospital will have all facilities and we do not have to travel anywhere for treatment. But the work is yet to start. Hope it starts soon and people get benefited by it,” a passer-by told DH.

At one point, the AIIMS also became a meme material with photos of a single brick with a caption AIIMS-Madurai going viral on social media.

AIIMS has always been in news in Tamil Nadu, most times for the wrong reasons. To be fair, it is the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) led by Modi which announced the setting up of the institute in the 2015-16 Union Budget, though Congress leaders claim they initiated the process.

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The Centre took time to kick off the process and when things started moving, Tamil Nadu witnessed a political upheaval following J Jayalalithaa's death. In 2017, there was a clamour among ministers and senior leaders of AIADMK to take AIIMS to their area, delaying the process further.

Thanjavur, Tiruchirapalli and other cities were in contention – many associations took out rallies demanding that the institute should come up in their place, but Madurai won finally.

Though there was not much progress after the foundation stone was laid in 2019 due to a slew of reasons, including Covid-19, the Centre appointed members to the governing council of the institute and has now allotted funds in the Union Budget.