FM Nirmala Sitharaman counters DMK's Draupadi barb with Jayalalithaa saree episode

New Delhi, August 10

Rumoured as being readied to contest her maiden Lok Sabha poll from Tamil Nadu in 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today tore into the DMK on a range of issues, including its MPs’ mention of Draupadi to attack the Centre for crimes against women in Manipur, allegations of imposition of Hindi in the state and loans taken to construct AIIMS, Madurai.

Targeting DMK’s M Kanimozhi, who spoke of Draupadi in reference to sexual assault on women in Manipur, the FM, intervening in the no-confidence motion debate, said, “You speak of the Kaurava Sabha, of Draupadi? Have you forgotten Jayalalithaa?” Sitharaman recalled the March 1989 incident of then Leader of Opposition J Jayalalithaa’s saree being pulled in the Tamil Nadu Assembly as “ruling DMK members laughed, made fun of her”. “Jayalalithaa took oath that she will not return to the House until she became Chief Minister and she returned after two years. That party which was in power when Jayalalithaa’s saree was being pulled today talks of Draupadi? Unbelievable,” said the FM, adding that the loan taken for AIIMS, Madurai, was part of central borrowing with no burden on the state.

She also attacked the DMK for questioning the installation of Sengol in the Lok Sabha of the new Parliament House and said, “Was Tamil pride not hurt when Sengol was used as a walking stick of a former Prime Minister and lost in history? Prime Minister Narendra Modi restored its glory.”

The ruling BJP is concentrating in Tamil Nadu’s 39 Lok Sabha seats for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently launching the party’s six-month-long padyatra in the state, which will conclude in January next year.