Naam Tamilar Katchi’s chief coordinator Seeman has condemned the arrest of opposition leader Udhayanidhi Stalin. In a statement he released on this, he said: “At a time when the Cauvery river water dispute has reached its peak, and with great determination to build a dam at Mekedatu, the Karnataka government and the opposition parties there are working in unison, holding an all-party meeting and taking forward initiatives, the political scenes unfolding in Tamil Nadu are deeply disappointing. Forgetting the basic principle that the ruling party and the opposition together make up the government, is it governance when both sides display hostility, act out of spite, and engage in political vendetta? Is this politics for the people?”

All the events taking place now are a matter of shame for the entire state of Tamil Nadu. Some of the remarks made by Opposition Leader Udhayanidhi Stalin at the DMK protest over the Cauvery river water issue were unnecessary; forgetting the dignity of the office of Opposition Leader, such undignified comments should not have been made in public. At the same time, it is also not acceptable for the TVK government to seize this as an opportunity and proceed under the name of arrest action.
If the TVK government is going to take arrest action for all political stage speeches, why has no action been taken so far against TVK members who, day after day, launch personal attacks, slander, and obscene attacks against me, my younger brother, and my sisters? Even after the Honorable Judge of the Madurai High Court Bench ordered legal action, insisting that action be taken against those who speak such slander, why were they not arrested? Is it because they are TVK supporters? The police, who file a complaint at 9 a.m. and arrest Udhayanidhi by 11 a.m. within two hours, why have they not arrested those who spread slander about me even after all these days, and instead protected them?

What action did you take against the esteemed Loyola Mani, who spoke in a degrading manner about me on stage, saying, “Seeman is old junk”? What is the name of the act of rewarding him with a government post as the head of the textbook board, as if to encourage such speech, Chief Minister? Is this your civilized politics? Against me and my younger brothers, there were no cases that the previous DMK government did not file in the past; no arrests that were not unleashed. I have received nearly 200 cases during the DMK regime itself. If the TVK government also follows the same authoritarian suppression that the previous DMK government practiced, with arrests for everything, is this democratic rule? Is this the alternative politics for the people?
It is painful to see low-quality politics being carried out that is of no benefit whatsoever to the people. Just like the previous DMK regime, the Taveka government rushing to arrest everyone for everything is an utterly intolerant approach. After criticizing the DMK as an evil force from every stage, in what way is it alternative politics for the Taveka government to unleash in the present the tyranny that the DMK committed in the past? When sexual allegations have been publicly raised against Taveka’s MLA from the Thiruvaikundam constituency, Saravanan, and other Taveka functionaries, and no inquiry has even been conducted so far, why is there such urgency only in this matter? Why is Chief Minister Vijay showing for arrests the speed he did not show in the Cauvery river water issue?

At a time when the kuruvai crop in the Cauvery delta has failed and the samba crop is also in doubt, it is shameful that the TVK government has engaged in barren actions and diverted Tamil Nadu’s attention entirely, instead of convening an all-party meeting and taking constructive steps that need to be taken in the Cauvery river water issue. It is a cursed political situation in Tamil Nadu that the ruling party shows speed in arrest actions that it does not show in the Cauvery river water issue, and that the opposition DMK is fighting against arrests at the very time when it should be fighting intensely for Cauvery.
He has noted, “Forgetting that tolerance is the fundamental requirement for democracy, it is very wrong for any government to resort to arrest for everything said on political platforms; if something is spoken wrongly on the stage, a defamation case should be filed, but jumping straight to arrest is against the principles of democracy. I urge the TVK government on behalf of the Naam Tamilar Katchi.”
