Stalin blames Modi’s lack of leadership, says ‘Preparedness cannot be outsourced to people’

In a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his call to the nation to be prepared for the long-term impact of the war in West Asia, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Tuesday asked, “Who should be prepared, the Union Government or the people?,” saying, “Preparedness cannot be outsourced to the people.”

“Prepared for what – leadership or its absence?” was the question he posed on his ‘X’ handle, blaming the lack of foresight and vision, as well as governance deficit on the part of Modi.

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“The only question before the nation is this: whether the Prime Minister is prepared to protect us?” Stalin asked what proactive steps Modi had taken to protect the people from the consequences of the ongoing war in West Asia. He is simply asking the country to face the present crisis as it did during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chief Minister noted.

“As the severity of the war intensified, I wrote to you on March 13 to ensure an uninterrupted supply of LPG cylinders and to revise the gas supply regulations to thermal power stations. On March 12, the opposition parties staged a protest in the Parliament complex to make the government aware of the worsening situation. Recalling that he had asked then what the Union Government was proposing to do, the Chief Minister said it had fallen on deaf ears.

“Without waiting for your intervention, as a responsible state government, we have extended a subsidy of Rs 2 per unit to the food industry employing electric ovens instead of LPG, subsidised loans to MSMES to procure electric furnaces, and dispensing with the TN Pollution Control Board’s permission to industries for using alternative resources. With hotels being shut, farmers have been allowed to market vegetables and fruits without any restriction at the 194 Rythu Bazars across the state,” he said.

The DMK-led Secular Progressive Alliance has held statewide demonstrations to protest the Modi government’s functioning without any foresight and caution, he pointed out. “After all these, while advising the people to be prepared, are you prepared to protect them?” Stalin asked. In the poll-bound Tamil Nadu, the fallout of the West Asia conflict has given a handle to beat the AIADMK-BJP alliance in the campaign.