Annamalai calls Jayalalithaa a ‘Hindutva leader’, Sasikala hits back
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Chennai: Tamil Nadu BJP leader K Annamalai has said that former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa was a ‘far superior leader of Hindutva than anybody in Tamil Nadu’ drawing criticism from her close aide V K Sasikala and AIADMK leader D Jayakumar, The Indian Express reported.
They called out Annamilai’s statement terming it ‘gross misrepresentation’ of the late AIADMK supremo’s secular and inclusive legacy.
Annamilai made the statement during an interview recently, saying ‘When Jayalalithaa-ji was alive, she was the far superior leader of Hindutva than anybody in Tamil Nadu.”
The BJP leader claimed that Jayalalithaa displayed her ‘Hinduness’ openly, adding further he said she was the first politician outside the BJP in the country to seek to build Ram Temple asking ‘if you don’t build Ram temple in India, are you going to build it in Pakistan’?
“When you consider BJP as a party, and Jayalalithaa as a leader, and when both of them co-exist, the natural choice of a Hindu voter would be Jayalalithaa — I am talking about a period before 2014. She used to display her ‘Hinduness’ openly. She may be the first politician in our country, outside BJP, to say that ‘if you don’t build Ram temple in India, are you going to build it in Pakistan’? A lady who brought anti-conversion law in the 2002-03 period, who donated liberally to temples, contested from Srirangam, who took efforts to revive the temple in a big way, getting elephants to major temples. If you look at her activity as a persona, she was a far superior Hindutva leader,” Annamalai was quoted as saying.
Sasikala, who lived with Jayalalithaa for about 25 years and was privy to all major political decisions taken by the AIADMK leader, said the late leader was an “unparalleled Dravidian leader of Tamil Nadu soil… a revolutionary leader, Amma!”.
Countering Annamalai, Sasikala said Jayalalithaa had faith in God but had no religious beliefs, and she said that ‘no one can confine such a distinguished leader to any narrow bounds.’
Sasikala was also quoted as saying: “Amma transcended caste, religion, and divisions, and was revered and admired by people from all walks of life throughout her life.”
AIADMK leader D Jayakumar called out Annamalai for ‘portraying her as a sectarian leader’.