Caretaker CM O Panneerselvam took Tamil Nadu by surprise late on Tuesday. Meditating for about 40 minutes at Jayalalithaa's memorial at Marina beach, he gave a forthright address to the press, tearing into VK Sasikala who looked all set to become the Chief Minister of the state.
OPS made some pretty serious accusations against Sasikala and as can only be expected, it didn't go down too well with party loyalists.
AIADMK spokesperson CR Saraswathi, who had been telling the press that there was nothing unusual about OPS going to the memorial and that he was just praying like several of the party cadre do, was livid by the time OPS finished.
Screaming into the cameras, Saraswathi said that OPS reminded her of actor Vadivelu and his "romba nallavan" (very good man) comedy track.
Saraswathi said, "We thought he was a good man, but we didn't know he was such a nasty, such a selfish man."
In his address, OPS had spoken about how the government under him responded quickly to the Vardah crisis and the jallikattu protests. He also said that this annoyed Sasikala, even though he did not take up her name.
In response to this, Saraswathi said, "He claims to be an Amma loyalist - if he was a loyalist, he wouldn't be going and doing this. He would have remained silent. He took credit for jallikattu, Vardah etc. If he's an Amma loyalist, why is he saying Amma did nothing for these things?"
Considering Jayalalithaa was no more by the time these crises hit Tamil Nadu, it's not clear what exactly Saraswathi meant by her statements.
She soon completely lost her cool and began yelling at the TV cameras and was cut off.
The AIADMK party under Jayalalithaa did not take to dissent kindly, from within the party and outside of it. It's clear that the party has not learnt any lessons in recent times either. CR Saraswathi, the spokesperson, completely losing her temper and shutting down dissent only goes to prove it.
