Chennai: The DMK has insisted that an independent body should conduct an inquiry into the Coimbatore Periyar Arivulagam books procurement irregularity, and that legal action is necessary against those involved in this irregularity.
In a statement issued by former DMK minister Kovi. Chezhiyan regarding this, “Writer Perumal Murugan had brought to light in one of his articles that some of the books included in the Coimbatore Periyar intellectual circle contain false information and incorrect history, and that the names and addresses of the publishers and authors of those books are fake. TVK is trying to use this for its political disgust.
The school education minister from the TVK government, who has gotten used to blaming the DMK for everything, and the party’s “virtual abusers” group, which operates solely to smear the DMK, acted as usual, thinking they could simply shift the blame onto the DMK.
What is shocking and surprising in this is that the Chief Minister, who until now had not opened his mouth on any issue, including law and order, rising prices, and electricity tariff hikes, has also issued a statement, astonishingly, out of the hope that this would be useful to divert the people’s attention!
As Chief Minister, Vijay has the authority to review all government documents in an instant. Once the controversy over the purchase of Periyar’s intellectual books came to light, he should have properly investigated it. It does not appear that he handled it responsibly.
The books purchased for libraries should be of good quality. The claim spread by TVK members, while concealing the fact that it was the DMK government that first created the ‘Transparent Book Procurement Policy’ to ensure transparency in such purchases, is nothing but slander.
In the previous DMK regime, we formed a book recommendation committee comprising respected writers and academicians so that quality books would be included in the grand library to be set up in Coimbatore. The writer Perumal Murugan, who wrote the article exposing the book scam, was himself a member of that book recommendation committee.
Have such complaints ever arisen before in DMK’s projects, which created thousands of libraries across Tamil Nadu and established libraries such as the Anna Centenary Library and the Kalaignar Centenary Library in a way that made the entire Indian Union look on in admiration?
However, since this news has come up under a TVK government that, after the change in administration, appears to be functioning with the sole aim of undermining DMK’s projects, one is compelled to suspect whether there is any ulterior motive or any conspiracy involved. The background of the specific books, the authors who wrote them, and the publishing houses that obtained permission should be made public.
Therefore, instead of saying DMK, DMK as usual, an investigation should be conducted by an independent body. The DMK’s position is that legal action is necessary against those involved in this irregularity,” he said.
What is Perumal Murugan’s allegation?
Writer Perumal Murugan said to reporters today: “Corruption has taken place in the books purchased for the grand library called Periyar Arivulagam, which has been opened in Coimbatore. I am putting forward this view based on what I have seen as a writer. I do not know who did this. Just by looking at the Tamil books that have been put on public display, it will be clear that corruption has definitely taken place.
With more than a hundred publishing houses in Tamil Nadu, 2,000 books from one particular publisher have been placed on library shelves. Each of those books is priced quite high. In the Tamil context, a 100-page book is usually priced at Rs. 150. If it is a book by a very popular author, it is priced at Rs. 200. But here, they have set the price at five times the usual rate. A book worth Rs. 300 has been priced at Rs. 1,500. Most of the books are priced above Rs. 1,000.
About 2,000 books have been purchased from a single publisher. They are not of good quality. Those books appear to be fake books entirely generated by artificial intelligence (AI). They have to be described as fraudulent books. The information in them, as well as the Tamil style, is not natural. The authors of those books do not appear to have written any other books so far.
It appears that fraud worth several lakh rupees has taken place in this. Moreover, many bundles of books are still unopened. If those are also opened and examined, it will become clear that corruption worth over a crore of rupees has occurred. The Tamil Nadu government should immediately take action to identify those involved in this procurement, those who distributed the books, those who issued the purchase orders, and the owners of the concerned publishing houses,” he said.