The war of words between TN Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan and TN BJP Chief K Annamalai has reached its nadir. Ignoring Thiagarajan’s personalized attack on PM Modi, FM Nirmala Sitharaman and calling him attu kutti (lamb), Annamalai responded with “Finally, You are not worthy enough for my slippers. I’ll never stoop to your level to orchestrate something like that. Don’t worry!”.
A couple days of ago, Annamalai said “we will not take a soft approach to politics in Tamil Nadu. We will go aggressive and there is no change of my style and the party’s approach. My style of politics is to talk to the people, party functionaries directly and increase the number of such interaction with them. I want my cadre to be aggressive since every political party, including the DMK and its allies, are against BJP. Hence, out of style of politics will be aggressive”.
The incorrigible, ‘double watch Douglas'(a moniker for wearing two wrist watches) PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan attacked Annamalai on Twitter mocking his family’s goat-rearing background, calling him a liar and a rabble-rouser.
Why won't I even address 🐐by name?
1) seeks publicity w/ Martyr's body
2) engineers slipper-throwing on car w/ national flag
3) lies blatantly
4) rabble-rouserVile beings like🐐& "High-Court Questions mental stability" are a curse on Tamil Society
But…also on the BJP😁 pic.twitter.com/t8DIiVsZa8
— Dr P Thiaga Rajan (PTR) (@ptrmadurai) August 31, 2022
Coming down heavily on him, who often keeps harping on about his dynastic privilege and basking on it, Annamalai tweeted “Mr. PTR, your problem is this: You & your coterie, who only live with your ancestors’ initials, cannot accept a self-made son of a farmer who also proudly practices farming – as a person. Have you done anything worthwhile in this life except being born to a great lineage & a silver spoon? You are a curse to politics & our state”.
He lambasted PTR, as popularly known, further tweeting “You need to understand there are people like us too – who don’t travel in big planes; don’t shut down banks & importantly, have a balanced brain & a life”. (An indirect jibe of his saying he travels only in big planes and not smaller low-cost airlines). I am not a Jesus Christ to turn the other cheek, if slapped on one. I will slap back. If it is aggression, I will be doubly aggressive. I am not going to be worried if I lose anything because of this. Finally, you are not worthy enough for my Chappals. I’ll never stoop to your level to orchestrate something like that. Don’t worry!”.
Without naming Annamalai , PTR tweeted “You are trying to seek publicity and engineered “ slipper-throwing” at a car, bearing the national flag and was a vile being and a curse to Tamil society.
Earlier also Palanivel Thiagarajan has made personal attacks on his political opponents. He has targeted Annamalai family’s goat-rearing background. In most of his tweets on Annamalai, he refers to the BJP leader as a goat with emoji of a goat.
He had unleashed abuses and made personal attacks on Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan who had called out the former for insulting Goa during the 43rd GST Council meeting. In May 2022, he abused a woman journalist by invoking her caste identity. Without naming senior DMK leader TKS Elangovan, he called him a man who could be bought for 2 kgs of shrimp.
Speaking to India Today recently on freebies issue, Thiagarajan said, “Either you must have a constitutional basis to say what you are saying, in which case we all listen, or you must have special expertise, you must be have a double PhD in Economics, or you must have a Nobel Prize or something that tells us you know better than us. Or, you must have a performance track record that you have grown the economy wonderfully or you brought down debt, increased the per capita income or created jobs. “When neither is true, why we should listen to somebody’s view?”. This has invited SC”s remarks. His remarks became source for slew of memes. Ironically he has not achieved anything to boast. When he was part of the Lehman Brothers , it filed for bankruptcy in 2008, triggering a global financial crisis. . He joined Standard Chartered Bank at Singapore and was forced to resign.
He indulged in cyber-bullying and slandering people with whom he doesn’t agree with. He was also instrumental in setting up the troll army of the party to unleash propaganda, as DMK IT wing in-charge.
