“Jayalalithaa’s Saree Was Pulled”: N Sitharaman To DMK On Women’s Safety

Hitting back at the Opposition’s attacks over the violence against women in Manipur, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today invoked Tamil Nadu’s former Chief Minister and AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa.

Countering DMK leader Kanimozhi’s remarks on crimes against women in India, she said, “Women suffering anywhere, be it Manipur or Rajasthan or Delhi, we have to take it seriously, but there should be no politics over it.”

She then recounted the March 25, 1989 incident when Ms Jayalalithaa’s saree was pulled in Tamil Nadu assembly. “She was a leader of the opposition. DMK members heckled, laughed at her. Jayalalitha took an oath that she will return to the assembly only after becoming the chief minister. And two years later, she did return as the chief minister,” she said.

Addressing the protesting DMK members, she said, “You are talking about Kaurava Sabha, you are talking about Droupadi, has DMK forgotten Jayalalithaa? Unbelievable.”

The Finance Minister was addressing Lok Sabha during the debate on the no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government. 

Responding to another barb by Ms Kanimozhi, in which the DMK MP had accused the centre of trying to impose Hindi, the Finance Minister said the Prime Minister is implementing the spirit of Silapathigaram in its spirit.

Hitting out at the Congress, she said “sengol” — a sceptre installed in the new parliament as a symbol of justice — “was forgotten and kept in a museum”. “Isn’t that an insult to Tamils,” she asked.

The sceptre had been presented to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru by Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam in Tamil Nadu, one of the oldest Shaivite mutts in the country.