Falsely accused of making derogatory remark against CM: DMK's Raja responds to EC

Chennai, Mar 31: DMK leader A Raja on Wednesday responded to the Election Commission's notice to him over his controversial remark on Chief Minister K Palaniswami's birth, saying he has been 'falsely accused' of making derogatory comments.

The former union telecom minister in his 'interim explanation' said he had not spoken anything 'obscene' or which would lower the dignity of women and motherhood.

Also his speech was not violative of the Model Code of Conduct or any other law, he argued.

A study of his entire speech would show that the allegations made were a result of having taken his words out of context and it was also 'blown out of proportion' to secure 'political mileage.' Raja claimed he used 'simile' to trace the political evolution of his party chief M K Stalin and Palaniswami and using such comparison was accepted in Tamil oratory.

He compared the two leaders to 'babies' for easy understanding of the common people to refute Palaniswami's allegations that Stalin never worked hard to rise to his present position.

'Hence, if the full text is considered by the committee, I am hopeful that it will wipe out the insult and consequent injury inflicted on me.' He was not served with a copy of the AIADMK's complaint against him to the EC and hence he could neither ascertain what allegation was against him nor reply to such accusations.

The Lok Sabha MP requested the EC to furnish him a copy of the complaint to enable him to reply.

Quoting the notice, he said case has been registered against him by police and added, 'a thorough and unbiased investigation will bring out the truth and will prove that I am falsely accused of making derogatory comments.' A case under IPC (provocation, obscene utterances 153, 294-b) and the Representation of the People Act (acting in a disorderly manner/disturbances, section 127) has been registered against Raja.

Any findings or suggestions of the EC in this matter would substantially 'prejudice me' in the ongoing probe, he said.

Also, he claimed that Palaniswami quoted him out of context on this matter and he became emotional too at a public meeting here on March 28.

Following this, he apologised if his remark had been 'misconstrued' and 'misunderstood' and also had said he had not intended to insult the CM.

The Election Commission had yesterday issued a show-cause notice to Raja for allegedly making derogatory remarks against Chief Minister Palaniswami during an election campaign.

The DMK's 'star campaigner' was asked to respond to the notice by 6 pm on Wednesday.