On Thursday, DMK President MK Stalin hit out PM Narendra Modi and said that he might take the aerial route to avoid protests now, but elections will force him to come down to earth.
Addressing a gathering at Vallampadugai in Cuddalore district during his Cauvery Rights Retrieval March, Stalin said, “The Prime Minister should not forget that he has to use the roads for the election campaign. A bird may fly sky high. But it has to land on the ground when it needs food,” according to a report in The Hindu.
Tamil Nadu saw state-wide protests against PM Modi for the failure in constituting the Cauvery Management Board (CMB). The state, dressed in black (a dravidian colour of protest) took to the streets sloganeering with black flags and even releasing black balloons into the sky while Modi was on a helicopter.
Stalin, who also wore a black shirt, reportedly said that if the Prime Minister wanted to be fair to the people of Tamil Nadu, he should have travelled by road and faced the black flag protest by the opposition.
“But he was afraid of travelling in a car and created a helipad even in the exhibition area," he said.
Observing that the PM is uninterested in knowing about the tension in TN, Stalin added, "‘Since he is not interested in knowing what is happening in Tamil Nadu, I can only compare him to the cat which closed its eyes and came to the conclusion that the world is dark.”
Several prominent leaders criticised Modi's decision to fly to the different events he had come to attend in Chennai.
The PM travelled by helicopter from the airport to the Defence expo in the Old Mahaballipuram Road. After his, he made his way to the centre of the city to inaugurate 4 new units at the Adyar Cancer Institute. A compound wall shared by the Children's Park and Cancer Institute was demolished to allow the PM to enter the premises for the event. As he also attended an event in IIT Madras, authorities prepared a helipad inside the campus.
Over 5000 police personnel were deployed as security arrangements for the PM.
Questioning the decision to not even enter public roads, MDMK chief Vaiko asked, "Aren't you the bravest, Mr.Modi? Why can't you travel by road? You are going directly into IIT by helicopter and then a wall is broken to let you into Cancer Institute. We have never seen such a cowardly Prime Minister in India. You are a coward. Are we going to shoot you through the black flags? Didn't Nehru face black flags?"
The DMK working president Stalin also reportedly said that the agitation will continue till the CMB was formed.