K Annamalai, Tamil Nadu president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has once again landed in controversy over his behaviour with reporters. Ahead of his visit to New Delhi, Annamalai was speaking at a press conference in Coimbatore on Sunday, October 1, when a woman reporter asked him if he’d remain in the BJP if he ceased to be the state president. Reacting to this question, Annamalai said, “Come here sister, come and talk from here. Let the people of Tamil Nadu see who is asking such questions,” gesturing at the spot in front of the microphones where he was taking questions.
The Tamil Nadu BJP chief was in Coimbatore as part of the Union government’s Swacchta Hi Seva clean up campaign, and is also in the midst of his statewide yatra, En Mann En Makkal. He was heading to New Delhi to meet BJP’s organising secretary BL Santhosh, after AIADMK formally announced quitting the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
AIADMK’s exit from the BJP-led alliance has come as a huge shocker for the BJP, which is reaching out to other political parties for a tie-up ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha poll. BJP insiders say the high command is unhappy with the recent development and is reaching out to the AIADMK to bring them back into the NDA fold.
In Coimbatore, continuing his tirade against the reporter who asked him the question, Annamalai said, “Sister, I want you to grow in this field. You should come up to a high position, which needs a bit of ethics. It needs professional grounding. Whatever is wrong, say that it is wrong. Whatever is right, say that it is right. I will be the first person to admire it. But the questions should follow a norm. My anger comes from wanting all of you to grow in the field. You shouldn’t hop from one channel to another and then become a nobody at 40 years old. You should become an editor in chief in Delhi.”
When another reporter attempted to intervene, Annamalai kept repeating, “How will you defend this?” He said that when a person has the right to ask questions, they should not cross the Lakshman Rekha. “There is a limit,” he added.
In October last year, while in Cuddalore during a demonstration held by the BJP, Annamalai had become angry with media persons attempting to get quotes from him. “Is this an ambush? Why are you surrounding me like monkeys jumping on a tree?” Annamalai had asked at the time, adding, “Did I not respectfully ask you all to eat before I went myself to eat? Dogs, ghosts and arrack sellers in the state may ask questions, do I have to be replying to everything they ask?” he added. The arrack seller reference appeared to be a jibe at the then Minister for Prohibition and Excise V Senthil Balaji, who is currently under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The following month, when he was questioned at another press conference in Coimbatore regarding his alleged reference to reporters as “monkeys”, he had doubled down and refused to apologise. Instead, the BJP leader said, “I did not call reporters monkeys. I asked why reporters are jumping like monkeys and not letting me talk in order to ask for bytes. Both are different.”
Read: Annamalai and the art of political gymnastics
Read: TN BJP chief Annamalai says he didn’t call journalists monkeys
When other reporters protested at the way he responded, Annamalai sarcastically said, “Let the eight crore people see who this intelligent person is, asking questions like whether I would continue in the BJP if I am not state president. There is a norm for asking questions. I will not spare those who cross that norm, whoever it is.”