‘I disclosed only what the DMK leader said’: Palaniswami on Karunanidhi ‘house arrest’ controversy; Stalin strikes back

New Delhi: Artificial Intelligence ADMK General secretary Edapaddi K Palaniswami on Saturday announced that his government would investigate a widely circulated video in which senior officials were DMK Leader A Raja has allegedly claimed that Chief Minister and DMK supremo MK Stalin kept his late father M Karunanidhi under “house arrest” during his last days of life. Palaniswami insisted that Stalin should vent his anger on Raja and not on him. “Mr. Stalin, don’t vent your anger on me. Vent your anger on your deputy general secretary and former Union minister Raja, who posted the audio that went viral. I was only reporting what Raja disclosed in his message. Why get angry? Show your anger to Raja and he will tell the truth. There is no point in venting on me,” the former Tamil Nadu chief minister told supporters at an election rally in Arani in Tiruvannamalai district. He further claimed that Stalin’s elder brother and former Union Minister MK Alagiri had previously said, “My father is being held as a prisoner”. “I was just repeating what Raja had revealed. Is it fair to confine your father (who made you DMK’s working president) to his home in his last days? Your brother Alagiri had said that his father was being held as a prisoner,” Palaniswami added. Recalling Stalin’s announcement ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections of ordering an inquiry into the 2016 death of AIADMK stalwart and former chief minister J Jayalalithaa and his 75-day hospitalization, Palaniswami said, “You said there would be an inquiry into the death of the former chief minister. Karunanidhi was also a former chief minister. The AIADMK will initiate a state-led inquiry into the Raja audio and take appropriate legal action.”“ Reacting to the allegations, Stalin dismissed them as “baseless and objectionable” and warned Palaniswami to focus his criticism on the chief minister’s performance. He stressed that Karunanidhi was taking a break due to age-related ailments and accused Palaniswami of “crossing all the red lines”. Counting of votes in all 234 assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu is scheduled to take place on May 4.