Chennai: Strongly criticising the Union Budget for “boycotting” Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday evening declared that as a mark of protest he would stay away from the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on July 27.
“I had planned and prepared to take part in the NITI Aayog meeting. However, to condemn the ‘boycott’ of Tamil Nadu in the Union Budget, I have decided not to participate in it. I think it would only be appropriate to boycott a Union Government’s meeting as Tamil Nadu was boycotted,” he told journalists in Chennai, flanked by State Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu and Local Administration Minister K N Nehru.
Asked if the Centre had not allocated anything significant for Tamil Nadu due to the DMK-led INDIA bloc’s sweep in the recent Lok Sabha polls, he answered in the affirmative alleging, “They (BJP-led Government) are that much angry with the people of Tamil Nadu.” He added that there no mention about “Tamil” or “Tamil Nadu” in the Union Budget. In a separate statement, he said, “It is painful that the BJP ruling the Union government is using the Union Budget to settle electoral scores.”
When a journalist sought to know, how his Government would manage sans allocations from the Centre, Stalin said, “We will handle just like the way we have been handling so far”. The Budget was a huge disappointment and showed the BJP Government was unwilling to do any good for the people, who gave it a third successive term, he alleged.
