Chennai , 14 June (H.S.):

DMK president and former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Sunday launched a sharp attack on Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay over his recent visit to New Delhi, accusing him of adopting a different standard from the one he had applied to political opponents in the past.

Addressing reporters, Stalin recalled that whenever he travelled to New Delhi as Chief Minister, Vijay had allegedly accused him of making the trip to evade scrutiny by central agencies and of maintaining a tacit understanding with the BJP.

“Whenever I went to Delhi as Chief Minister, the present Chief Minister made several allegations. He claimed that I had travelled there to escape ED cases and suggested that the DMK had entered into an indirect alliance with the BJP,” Stalin said.

Turning the spotlight on Vijay’s recent Delhi visit, the DMK leader posed a series of pointed questions. “What have you done now? Did you go to Delhi to escape the Karur CBI case? Are you afraid to criticise the BJP because you fear it could create problems for your government?” he asked.

Stalin said the questions were intended to highlight what he described as the inconsistency in Vijay’s political rhetoric. According to him, the allegations now being raised against the Chief Minister mirrored the accusations that had previously been levelled against the DMK leadership.

At the same time, Stalin stressed that he would not resort to the kind of personal criticism that he claimed Vijay had employed in the past. He maintained that attending official government events in the national capital was part of a Chief Minister’s responsibilities and should not automatically be viewed through a political lens.

“I will not lower my standards by making derogatory remarks about the Chief Minister merely because he attended an official government programme in Delhi,” Stalin said.

The remarks come amid intensifying political exchanges between the ruling TVK-led government and the opposition DMK, with both sides increasingly targeting each other over their respective relationships with the BJP and the Union government.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman