Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Manickam Tagore
Calling media reports on the incident involving Arul Vignesh a “media trial,” Tagore said the MLA was “paavam” (innocent) and noted that the latter had denied the charges. The TNCC president told reporters that the MLA had denied sending such a message. “It is wrong to compare an incident that did not happen with something that actually happened,” the Congress leader said.
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Manickam Tagore on Wednesday came to the defence of Kallakurichi MLA C Arul Vignesh, who has been facing sharp criticism over allegations that he sent an inappropriate WhatsApp message to a woman district collector.
Tagore’s remarks in support of Vignesh came a day after his party MPs S Jothimani and R Sudha had strongly condemned the TVK MLA over the incident. They had demanded that the ruling party and chief minister C Joseph Vijay take immediate action against the MLA, who had also reportedly visited the collector’s camp office in an inebriated condition.
So, don’t compare what happened with what did not happen,” he said when asked why Congress had criticised Udhayanidhi’s controversial remark but remained silent over the controversy surrounding the Kallakurichi MLA. Tagore said the MLA had offered to let the authorities check the CCTV footage. “If there is any complaint regarding this or if he spoke anything of that sort in the open, you can report it,” he said, responding to a question about the woman IAS officer having flagged the issue to chief secretary M Sai Kumar, following which a personal security officer was provided to her. “Don’t use ifs and buts for routine discussions between the collector and the CS,” he said.
“Is there any evidence that the Kallakurichi MLA spoke in such a manner? Tagore the collector and the chief secretary would routinely communicate over matters relating to district administration.