Stalin Turns Thirupparankundram Controversy into Centre Critique on AIIMS and Metro Projects
Stalin exposes Centre’s seven-year AIIMS betrayal and Metro rejection.
Chief Minister MK Stalin delivered a calculated political masterstroke on Friday, hijacking the BJP’s aggressive “anti-Hindu” campaign over the Thirupparankundram deepam controversy and redirecting public anger towards the Union government’s prolonged and systematic neglect of Madurai’s critical infrastructure needs.
In a post on X that went viral within minutes, Stalin posed a direct challenge to the people of the temple city, asking whether Madurai deserved petty communal politics or the long-promised AIIMS super-speciality hospital, Metro Rail network, and large-scale industrial corridors that would generate lakhs of jobs and transform southern Tamil Nadu.
The AIIMS project, personally announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid much fanfare in 2018, has remained frozen for seven consecutive years with virtually no construction activity, while the identically timed AIIMS in BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh is already fully operational and serving patients, handing the DMK an unassailable example of alleged partisan discrimination against non-BJP states.
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The DMK has weaponised this delay as proof of deliberate punishment meted out to Tamil Nadu for rejecting the saffron party at the hustings.
Further exposing perceived double standards, the Centre recently dismissed detailed Metro Rail proposals for Madurai and Coimbatore citing strict population thresholds, even though smaller non-capital cities in BJP-ruled heartland states such as Agra, Kanpur, and Indore received swift approvals for similar mass-transit systems, reinforcing the opposition’s narrative of vindictive federal governance.
Industries Minister TRB Rajaa amplified the offensive, accusing the BJP of deliberately damaging Madurai’s global reputation through manufactured religious controversies at the precise moment when Tamil Nadu is aggressively marketing the city to foreign investors as an emerging hub for IT services, advanced manufacturing, and defence production ahead of a high-profile investment summit, while firmly asserting that the traditional lamp was lit exactly as it has been for over a century, exposing the saffron party’s claims as baseless propaganda.
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