As the D-day for the Lok Sabha election nears in Tamil Nadu, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) have intensified their campaign questioning each other on their governance through full-page advertisements in newspapers. Two days after the DMK published an advertisement questioning BJP-led Union government’s welfare for Tamil Nadu, the BJP on Tuesday, April 16, published an advertisement with 100 questions pertaining to the unfulfilled poll promises of the DMK. The BJP challenged if the DMK can answer “at least one question”.
Earlier on April 14, the DMK had published an advertisement with the tagline “Why is it like this for Tamil Nadu?” and raised several questions about the lack of progress in establishing AIIMS in Tamilnadu and the Union government’s stand on National Eligibility Entrance Test. The questions read: “why is a hospital standing as a single brick”, “why were 3076 fisherfolk arrested and 534 boats seized?”, “why another exam for realising medical dream?”
Responding to this, the BJP has asked, “Why have you not taken any action despite knowing that Tamil Nadu tops in the number of manual scavenging deaths? Did you forget the promise you made that this inhumane practice will be eradicated once you get into power?” It is to be noted that the BJP-led Union government, in July 2023, submitted at the Lok Sabha that there were no deaths due to manual scavenging in India. Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale said that there have only been nine deaths this year of “cleaning workers” due to “hazardous cleaning of sewer/septic tanks.”
Though the act of cleaning sewers and septic tanks technically falls under the category of manual scavenging, it is not taken into account as The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 only defines a “manual scavenger” as a person who “manually cleans, carries, disposes of, or handles human excreta in any manner in an insanitary latrine or in an open drain or a pit into which the human excreta from the insanitary latrines is disposed of, or on a railway track or other such spaces or premises”. This does not include a sewer or a septic tank.
The BJP also pointed out one of the poll promises made by the DMK ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections that sanitary workers will get one day off every week and asked when it would be implemented. In its manifesto, the DMK said that sanitation workers will get one day off every week. Persons who choose to work on such holidays will be paid Over Time Wages, they said. However, the party is yet to implement this promise.
Similarly, the BJP listed at least 50 of DMK’s Assembly poll promises and questioned when it would be implemented. Some of the promises include that of a monthly assistance of Rs 1000 to those who raise bulls participating in jallikattu; providing free tablet devices with 4G/5G connectivity and 10GB data connection to higher secondary and college students.
The party has also raked up the Katchatheevu issue and asked, “Why have you not openly apologized to Tamil people even after your 40 years of lies and drama about the Katchatheevu issue came out?” Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month raked up the decades-old Katchatheevu issue and alleged that the Congress and the DMK colluded and were “hand in glove” in the ceding of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka.
The BJP also asked why DMK leader Jaffer Sadiq, who was caught in a drug scandal, was allowed to continue in the party. They also accused the Tamil Nadu government of “ignoring” the issues of medical waste dumping, Mullaperiyar and Siruvani dam issues for the sake of its “coalition politics” with the neighbouring state of Kerala.
The Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu will be held on April 19 along with Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand. Around 6 crore voters will be casting their votes for the candidates in 39 constituencies in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry. Tamil Nadu is witnessing a four-cornered election this time with the DMK, BJP, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK).