A video of the Managing Director of Tamil Nadu’s famous Sree Annapoorna hotel, apologising to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for his comments on the Union government’s Goods and Services Tax has triggered a controversy in Tamil Nadu. In the video released by local BJP functionaries on X, Srinivasan, who is also the honorary president of Tamil Nadu Hotels Association, can be seen apologising to the FM for his actions. The video shows Nirmala Sitharaman, Coimbatore South BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan and Srinivasan seated in a room. The opposition has alleged that Srinivasan was forced to apologise and the video was made public by the BJP to humiliate him. 

The video of this close-door meeting was shared by Tamil Nadu BJP convenor Balaji MS. Balaji wrote that Srinivasan had apologised for the “indecent” speech. The meeting seems to have happened a day after Srinivasan had eloquently questioned the Finance Minister in a public meeting. 

On September 11, the Finance Minister met with industrialists and hoteliers in Coimbatore. Srinivasan, representing the Tamil Nadu Hotels Association, highlighted the industry's grievances over GST inconsistencies. He humorously remarked that the Union government's practice of taxing each item differently had caused such confusion that "even the computers are unable to compute."

“The problem is that GST is applied differently to each item. For example: there is no GST on bun. If you put cream in it, GST becomes 18%. Because of this, customers say that they want bun and cream separately so that they can apply cream on the bun themselves to save money,” he said, leading to an eruption of laughter in the venue. 

He continued, “People say that the FM has put 5% GST on sweet and 12% on namkeen because people eat a lot of sweets in the North. In Tamil Nadu, sweet, namkeen and coffee go together. Please charge uniform GST for these. The computer itself is getting stuck because of this GST confusion,” he shared nonchalantly. 

This video went viral across all social media platforms, with many sharing it ridiculing the Finance Ministry. 

Following this, Srinivasan met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman in the presence of Vanathi Srinivasan. Vanathi told TNM that Srinivasan apologised ‘voluntarily’.

According to a source close to Srinivasan, he told the Finance Minister that he did not mean to offend her.

Sources in the Tamil Nadu Hotels Association said that Srinivasan did not expect that the meeting between him and the Finance Minister would be captured on video and made public. “He was merely representing the issues faced by the hotel industry in the GST calculation and it was decided that only he would speak at the event on behalf of the association,” a source said. 

BJP leaders making the video public has led to much ire with both the DMK and Congress calling it ‘fascist tendency’.

Reacting to the Union Minister’s action, DMK MP Kanimozhi quoting a verse of Thirukural said that the Union government and the Union Ministers should not hurt the self-esteem of Tamil Nadu.