AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on August 13 recounted the pandemonium and violence that unfolded in the Legislative Assembly on March 24, 1989, in which the then Leader of Opposition Jayalalithaa was attacked by some legislators.
A barbaric attack was unleashed on Jayalalithaa by the then DMK Ministers and MLA, in the presence of the then Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, he said in Madurai.
Stating he was a witness to the incident in the Assembly, he said it is a “black day” in the history of Tamil Nadu Assembly.
“Even as [former AIADMK MLAs], S. Thirunavukarasu [now in Congress] and K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran [now Minister], tried to prevent the assault by the DMK MLAs, a senior Minister in the present [M.K. Stalin] cabinet, pulled the saree of Jayalalithaa,” he said. “Some of the Ministers and DMK MLAs pulled Jayalalithaa, by her hair,” he alleged.
Unprecedented, worst incident
Terming the incident as “unprecedented in the Assembly”, he said he still vividly remembers the cruel event.
Mr. Palaniswami recounted the incident at Madurai Airport while responding to a question on Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, reportedly describing the incident as a drama after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had recalled this incident in the Parliament while addressing on the no-confidence motion.
“The Chief Minister has belittled such a cruel incident. Every detail of the assault in the Assembly was reported widely in the media ... the people of the State taught DMK a fitting lesson in the next Assembly election,” he said.
After the incident, Ms. Jayalalithaa had vowed she would return to the Assembly only as the Chief Minister and the DMK was routed in the 1991 election.
Condemning the Chief Minister for making a “false statement” on the incident, Mr. Palaniswami said, “the truth had prevailed then [in 1991 Assembly election]. People will teach a proper lesson [to the DMK] in the forthcoming Parliament election,” he said.
When a journalist contended the Assembly records did not have these details about the incident, Mr. Palaniswami said how would the DMK have allowed these details to be recorded.
“If the Assembly had been conducted in the right manner, such an incident would not have happened at all. The perpetrators of the crime should have been dismissed from the Assembly for unleashing attack on a woman member. But, no one was punished for the barbaric attack,” he said.
