Southern States being discriminated against: Maran

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Dayanidhi Maran speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session, in New Delhi on Monday, February 10, 2o025
| Photo Credit: ANI

DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran on Monday (February 10, 2025) accused the NDA government at the Centre of meting out “unfair” treatment towards Southern States even as “Tamil Nadu was the most successful State of the country”.

“There is unfair treatment towards the southern States. With an eye on the Bihar elections, there were schemes like the expansion of Patna Airport and the Kosi river project (announced in the Union Budget). What about Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala,” he questioned, while participating in a debate on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha.

Maybe next year, a lot of schemes would be announced for Tamil Nadu and Kerala in view of the Assembly polls “but they would be mere announcements and nothing would come to Tamil Nadu”, he said.

The Kanya Kumari-Thiruvananthapuram economic corridor has been ignored again in the Union Budget, he said. Despite their contribution to the economy, there was no incentives for IT hubs in Bengaluru and Chennai, he pointed out, adding that the Chennai Metro project has also not received funds.

Mr. Maran said that the most successful State in India today was Tamil Nadu because the DMK government followed the ‘Dravidian model’.

“We are never against Hindi, we are only against Hindi imposition, he said, adding “today, if Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has achieved these heights, it is because of one man Periyar. She should never ever forget it”.

The DMK MP accused the Narendra Modi-led government of coming out with successive budgets that have focussed on poll-going States, keeping in mind only political gains.

Preference has been given by the government to the corporates and not the common man, he said. He also claimed that prices of essential commodities were going up, hurting the interests of the poor and the middle classes.

Taking a swipe at the Finance Minister, he said whenever the Opposition flagged the falling value of the rupee, she always responded that the rupee was not getting weaker but only the USD was getting stronger. He also questioned why Ms. Sitharaman was not present during the budget discussion.