The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in a damage control mode after a video of the Managing Director of Tamil Nadu’s famous Sree Annapoorna hotel apologising to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman shared by their social media handles proved costly for the party. The state unit of the party on Saturday, September 14, sacked Singanallur zonal president Sathish for capturing the video and circulating it among social media convenors. The video was a meeting between the finance minister and the hotel MD Srinivasan.
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 video of the incident had also gone viral, following which the closed door meeting happened. The video of the close-door meeting was shared by Tamil Nadu BJP convenor Balaji MS, who wrote that Srinivasan had apologised for the “indecent” speech.
A day ago, BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai had issued an apology and expressed regret over the incident. On Saturday, Annapoorna group in a statement said that their MD, Srinivasan, went to meet the Union Finance Minister on “his own volition” and that there is “no misunderstanding or misinterpretation of facts”.
The statement said, “The video of this private interaction was inadvertently shared on social media, which has caused a lot of misunderstanding and confusion. BJP has apologised and taken action against the maker of the video. With this we would like to put to rest the unnecessary assumptions and political misunderstanding. We hope everybody understands that we would like to end this episode and move on. ”
Annamalai expressed regret for the unintended breach of privacy and praised MD Srinivasan for contributing significantly to the state’s and nation’s economic growth. “On behalf of BJP Tamil Nadu, I sincerely apologise for the actions of our functionaries who shared a private conversation between a respected business owner and our Hon FM. I spoke with Thiru Srinivasan Avl, the esteemed owner of the Annapoorna chain of restaurants, to express regret for this unintended breach of privacy.”
Earlier on Saturday, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K Selvaperunthagai led a demonstration with party cadres wearing a packet of buns with a board that showed “18% GST” around their necks.
Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge had also criticised the BJP and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the video. Rahul Gandhi criticised the government's treatment of small business owners and spoke of the hardships faced by small business owners under the Modi government. "When the owner of a small business, like Annapoorna restaurant in Coimbatore, asks our public servants for a simplified GST regime, his request is met with arrogance and outright disrespect. Yet, when a billionaire friend seeks to bend the rules, change the laws, or acquire national assets, Modi Ji rolls out the red carpet," he said.