Lakshmana Venkat Kuchi
It is a slap in the face of AIADMK that tried to obstruct a Tamil Nadu government welfare scheme for people, now allowed by the Supreme Court’s to use Chief Minister MK Stalin’s name, said the state ruling party.
Its leader, A Sarvanan said the SC order allowing Tamil Nadu to go ahead with ‘Ungaludan Stalin’ (With You, Stalin) scheme, is a huge setback to the AIADMK that was always trying to do disruptive politics instead of constructive politics.
Slamming the AIADMK MP and former state minister CV Shanmugam for “obstructive politics”, the DMK told News24 that it is also a slap against the AIADMK party, which instead of doing constructive politics is doing this kind of obstructionist politics, using the courts as a tool to settle political scores.
The Tamil Nadu government scheme was not an advertisement. This is not something which is wasting taxpayers money, and it is for the welfare of the common man, he said and added “even the courts have slammed the AIADMK MP for singling out the scheme to challenge, when 45 schemes across the country have been named after political figures.”
Allowing the TN scheme, the Supreme Court said in its order on Wednesday that “Time and again, we have observed that political battles should be fought before the electorate. The courts should be used to settle the political scores between the political parties”.
“When such schemes are floated in the name of all leaders of political parties, we do not appreciate the anxiety of the petitioner to choose only one political party and one political leader”, the SC bench said in its order.
The bench, led by Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, that set aside a Madras High Court order of July 31 which barred the TN govt from using Stalin’ pictures and name for the scheme, also imposed a cost of Rs 10 Lakh on AIADMK MP.
DMK Rajya Sabha MP and Supreme Court advocate, P Wilson, who was among those who argued in the case, said, “Its a landmark judgment saar. The court dismissed the order on writ petition in Madras High Court but also dismissed it with exemplary cost of Rs 10 lakhs. Arguments in the court took some two hours, he said, but in the end the judgment that came is one that sets the thing for all the elected governments, including the union government. If a popularly elected government wants to name a scheme after the Chief Minister, what is wrong with that,” Wilson questioned welcoming the apex court decision.
