TN Oppn demands TVK MLA's arrest over alleged harassment of woman Collector

    Chennai, Nov 12 (PTI) The alleged harassment of a woman collector by a ruling TVK MLA in Tamil Nadu snowballed into a major controversy on Thursday with the opposition parties filing formal complaints against the legislator with top officials and tore into the C Joseph Vijay government, saying governance was not cinema and sought stringent action.

    Main opposition party DMK also hit out at the TVK over Assembly Deputy Speaker M Ravishankar allegedly assaulting an individual.

    Responding, TVK leader and Law Minister R Nirmal Kumar denied allegations that the party's Kallakurichi MLA C Arul Vignesh had sent obscene WhatsApp messages to the woman collector, claiming the incident did not happen as DMK deputy general secretary Kanimozhi claimed based on unverified social media posts.

    The opposition DMK and AIADMK petitioned top officials, including the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, seeking action against Vignesh. They demanded the legislator's arrest.

    DMK president M K Stalin slammed CM Vijay's alleged inaction against the conduct of TVK legislators, saying governance was not cinema, and accused him of failing to take concrete disciplinary or legal action against ruling party MLAs facing serious allegations of misconduct.

    Taking to the social media platform X under the hashtag "TVKfails", the former CM posted a satirical illustration depicting Vijay smiling and presenting Deepavali gifts to the two legislators in question.

    The digital illustration, accompanying the post, depicted CM Vijay smiling and presenting silk dhotis and sweets to the two MLAs standing with folded hands, with one of them wearing a red-and-yellow TVK party shawl.

    A speech bubble in the cartoon mocked the chief minister with the caption: "silk veshti (dhoti) for you...punch dialogue for the media..." apparently alluding to Vijay's repeated use of powerful dialogues in his films.

    Dismissing newspaper reports claiming that the CM had issued a "stern warning" to his party MLAs that wrongdoing would not be tolerated, Stalin claimed that these reports were merely "planted" as part of a damage-control exercise.

    "If the chief minister's reprimand is genuine, what should he have done," Stalin asked, and added that a police case should have been registered against Ravishankar for undermining the dignity of the Legislative Assembly. He demanded that appropriate action be initiated against Vignesh as well.

    Instead of penalising the two legislators, Vijay had presented them with Deepavali gifts and sent them off. "Is this what constitutes strict action," he asked.

    Drawing a contrast between politics and films, the DMK chief remarked, "this is not cinema to pass time by merely uttering punch dialogues."

    He challenged Vijay to prove how strict he truly is by taking "real action," adding that mere verbal posturing serves no purpose.

    Speaking to reporters here, Nirmal Kumar emphasised that he would not continuously defend or respond to rumors, maintaining that the narrative was being politicised.

    Declining to provide further specific details regarding the Kallakurichi MLA's involvement, he maintained that he had already addressed the matter and that he did not have the authority to speak further on it.

    "I don't have the authority to speak about or mention anyone's personal matters, but I am saying that it is not like the way Kanimozhi recorded it" he said.

    Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin questioned why the CM was "protecting" the two legislators.

    "What is the reason for not taking action against the deputy Speaker who beat and tortured a petitioner," the DMK youth wing secretary asked and claimed that Vijay lacked courage to take action against his party members who made mistakes.

    He claimed that the chief minister was attempting to divert the attention of the people by holding a review meeting with police officials and a consultative meeting with TVK MLAs.

    He urged the chief minister to rein in his party members, warning that voters will otherwise hold the government accountable.

    Earlier in the day, the DMK represented by its organisation secretary R S Bharati submitted a formal petition to the office of the DGP, seeking an impartial CB-CID enquiry into the allegations against the Kallakurichi TVK MLA.

    The AIADMK South Chennai district legal wing deputy secretary advocate R Trisuli petitioned top Tamil Nadu government officials, including the Chief Secretary, demanding legal action against aVignesh.

    Both the AIADMK and DMK have escalated their political pressure on the Vijay-led government, pressing for legal measures against the legislator.

    Following a political outcry over the recent incident, Vignesh denied the allegation as "untrue".

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)