BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai on Tuesday alleged that the speech prepared by the Tamil Nadu government for Governor’s Address in the Assembly had factually misleading propaganda and accused the Speaker of partisan behaviour.
Addressing journalists after inaugurating the party’s campaign office for Chennai North parliamentary constituency, he said that he viewed Governor R.N. Ravi’s walkout from the Assembly before the national anthem was played, as a reaction to what he claimed were Speaker M. Appavu’s “inappropriate” remarks.
“The Speaker, who has to be neutral, behaved worse than a DMK cadre,” he claimed.
Stating that one could debate whether Governor’s refusal to read out the speech was appropriate or not, he alleged that the prepared speech contained factually incorrect information. “How will the Governor praise the government through such lies?,” he asked. While members of the Assembly can debate whether the remarks made by the Governor were right or not, Speaker should not have spoken in what he called a partisan manner.
‘Wrong claim’
Reiterating a statement that he had issued a day earlier, Mr. Annamalai said that the prepared speech was wrong about loss of revenue due to Goods and Services Tax, State government’s handling of floods, law and order situation in Tamil Nadu and claims of the State being a leader in attracting investments and implementing certain social sector schemes.
On the resignation of Minister V. Senthilbalaji, Mr. Annamalai said that he saw it as BJP’s victory as the party was continuously demanding his resignation ever since he was arrested. He, however, added that one should watch whether he resigned at this juncture thinking that it will help in his bail petition pending before the court.