Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin slammed the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for arresting the Electricity, Prohibition and Excise Minister of the state, Senthil Balaji. In a video on Thursday, June 15, CM Stalin said that Senthil Balaji was locked up for 18 hours, mentally harassed and his life put in danger for cases dating back to 10 years. Senthil Balaji was arrested from his residence in the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 14, in a case pertaining to a cash for job scam in the state run transport corporation between 2011-2015. Senthil Balaji was a minister holding the Transport portfolio in the Jayalalithaa regime then. The Chief Minister said that ED’s arrest of Senthil Balaji was nothing but political vendetta. He also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cannot intimidate the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) or its leaders through raids and that they will be countered in the 2024 elections.
Attacking the way Senthil Balaji was questioned, MK Stalin said, “What is the emergency to question him in this fashion? Is there an undeclared emergency in the country? We are not opposed to an inquiry against Senthil Balaji based on court orders. He is an elected representative, a five-time MLA and Minister for the second time. Why should he be treated as a terrorist?”
Alleging that BJP is using the ED for political purposes, Stalin said, “The BJP is not ready to meet people and compete politically. They cannot face us ideologically, politically and in elections, therefore the party is trying to threaten us by using the I-T [Income Tax] department, ED, and CBI. This is anti-democratic.” He also said that the ED had conducted only 112 raids in the ten years before BJP came to power, but after BJP came to power, 3,000 raids were conducted against people who opposed the party. Only 0.05% of the cases are proven. The rest are to intimidate people,” he said and made a list of the non-BJP political leaders who were raided or arrested by the BJP, including Manish Sisodia from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Karti Chidambaram from Congress, DK Shivakumar from Karnataka, among others. The Chief Minister also pointed out that no raids were conducted in BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
“We have ideologies. We are against communalism, casteism and sanatanam. We oppose ‘anti-people’ ideology through elections. You cannot intimidate us to do your bidding,” the Chief Minister said. He also slammed Tamil Nadu Assembly’s Opposition leader and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Edappadi K Palaniswami, who had demanded the resignation of Minister Senthil Balaji from the cabinet.
தி.மு.க.காரர்களைச் சீண்டிப் பார்க்க வேண்டாம். எங்களுக்கும் எல்லா அரசியலும் தெரியும். இது மிரட்டல் அல்ல; எச்சரிக்கை! pic.twitter.com/MTA0suBkSh
— M.K.Stalin (@mkstalin) June 15, 2023