Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M. Appavu on Wednesday said that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, who hailed from Tamil Nadu, always acted against the interests of Tamils, and was now supporting the Election Commission, which was undermining the voting rights of the people of the State through the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
During an informal chat with reporters, after receiving the hockey men’s junior world trophy in Palayamkottai, Mr. Appavu was reacting to Ms. Nirmala’s recent assertion that SIRs had taken place in India on several occasions and, hence, the DMK should not get panicked.
The Speaker said there was a lot of difference between SIR 2025 and previous enumeration of voters, as the Election Commission, which was an independent body until the BJP came to power in 2014, had now become a puppet of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar was not the Chief Election Commissioner as he and the ECI were taking orders from the Prime Minister.
Even though the Prime Minister had announced that ₹10,000 would be given to women in Bihar just ahead of Bihar Assembly polls, the ECI, which should have taken action against Mr. Modi, remained a mute spectator. The ECI, which refused to upload Form 17 C detailing booth-wise poll percentage immediately after the end of every polling, was “manipulating” the poll percentage by declaring it after 24 or 48 hours.
“And, Ms. Nirmala is supporting the ECI and its SIR 2025. When Tamil Nadu is desperately in need of ₹ 2,152 crore under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, she did not release this fund for the poor children’s education. The flood relief of ₹37,000 crore for Tamil Nadu was not released. While allocating ₹663 crore for promoting sports in Gujarat, what Ms. Nirmala released for Tamil Nadu, an epicentre of sports, was just ₹33 crore. While waiving corporate loans to the tune of ₹16 lakh crore, she refuses to waive crop, weavers, women self-help groups and educational loans. So, she is always acting against the welfare of Tamil Nadu and Tamils,” Mr. Appavu said.
Published – November 12, 2025 06:49 pm IST
