‘Posting reels, running admin like cinema’: Stalin hits back at Vijay amid Assembly gesture row

MK Stalin hit back at Tamil Nadu CM C Joseph Vijay over his MISA remarks in the Assembly, recalling his 1976 arrest during the Emergency and accusing Vijay of using publicity to divert attention from administrative failures.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay “must not talk about unnecessary controversies in the Assembly,” DMK president MK Stalin said on Thursday. Stalin responded to Vijay's recent Assembly remarks on the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA), recalling his arrest in 1976 and alleging that he was subjected to custodial torture during the Emergency.  

Addressing Vijay as “Thambi Vijay”, Stalin said his struggle during the Emergency was part of the DMK's history. “History can never be changed,” the former Tamil Nadu chief minister said. He also accused Vijay of using social media reels and publicity to divert attention from administrative failures.  

“You [CM Vijay] turned the Assembly itself into a place where reels happen, standing on the bridge we built and doing photoshoots, you are running the administration also, just like a cinema shooting. To hide your inefficient administration, you are posting various reels like this and cheating a whole generation,” Stalin said in a video on X.

Stalin's remarks came two days after Vijay clarified that the hand gesture he made while referring to MISA in the Assembly was “not in any way intentional”. The gesture, in which Vijay placed his hand near his jaw, was widely interpreted as a reference to Stalin's jaw injury during his detention in 1976.  

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‘Police came to arrest me’

Stalin said the DMK organised a major gathering at Marina Beach in 1976 to oppose the Emergency and protest against MISA. He recalled that police subsequently went to the Karunanidhi residence in Gopalapuram to arrest him under MISA. Stalin said he was away campaigning at the time.

“The Union Government that was in power at that time, on 31st January 1976, dismissed the DMK government. The very next second after dismissing the government, police came to the Gopalapuram house to arrest me under the MISA Act,” he said in his video.

According to Stalin, veteran leader M Karunanidhi told the police that his son had gone out campaigning and would return the following day. He then asked the police to return and arrest Stalin after his arrival.

“When I came, he himself called the police and asked them to arrest me,” Stalin said, recounting the incident.

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