Parties spar over Jaya portrait in TN House
Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu stayed away from a ceremony to unveil the portrait of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa in the assembly on Monday, saying the honour should not be extended to a person convicted of corruption.
DMK working president MK Stalin said that had Jayalalithaa been alive, she would have been serving time in Bengaluru jail along with VK Sasikala.
“DMK does not support the idea to have (her) portrait inside the assembly hall, where portraits of leading lights of Tamil Nadu have been placed,” he said.
The government brushed aside the criticism and rushed through the ceremony even as the DMK petitioned Madras high court demanding the portrait be removed from the assembly.
The seven-feet-tall portrait shows Jayalalithaa in her trademark green sari, staring down at the Opposition benches.
With the DMK, Congress and Indian Union Muslim League boycotting the function, members of the ruling AIADMK, the party founded by Jayalalithaa, occupied Opposition benches.
Rebel AIADMK leader TTV Dhinakaran, who is Sasikala’s nephew, too, stayed away.
“The government should not denigrate the rich heritage and prestige of the assembly by placing a convict’s portrait in the assembly,” Stalin added.
The Supreme Court had on February 14, 2017 found Sasikala, a long-time aide of Jayalalithaa, and two others guilty of amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income in a 21-year-old case in which the AIADMK founder was also an accused.
Charges against Jayalalithaa were abated after her death on December 5, 2016 but the SC held her “in league with Sasikala”.
Jayalalithaa didn’t allow Sasikala to stay at her Poes Garden residence out of humanitarian concern but to amass assets and launder her ill-gotten wealth, the apex court had said.