Chennai, February 9 VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan accused the BJP-led Centre on Monday of deliberately "sabotaging" parliamentary proceedings and practicing "favoritism" towards non-BJP ruled states, particularly Tamil Nadu, in the allocation of funds.
Speaking to reporters here, Thirumavalavan, who represents the Chidambaram Lok Sabha constituency, alleged that the ruling party is not interested in the smooth functioning of Parliament and is actively suppressing the voice of the Opposition.
"The ruling party is behaving in an authoritarian manner in this session. They are not even allowing the Leader of the Opposition (Rahul Gandhi) to speak. It is a common practice to cite references from books and journals during debates. However, using the pretext that he was quoting from an unpublished work, they completely blocked him from speaking and disrupted the entire proceedings last week. We expect a similar trend this week as well," Thirumavalavan said.
Responding to queries regarding the upcoming business in the House, the VCK chief stated that Tamil Nadu MPs would collectively raise their voices against the Union government's "neglect" in releasing pending dues to the state.
"If the environment permits, we will certainly raise our voices for our rights and question the non-allocation of funds to Tamil Nadu. The Centre has not even released the funds already earmarked for us. There are significant arrears in various sectors, including education," he said.
The Dalit leader further slammed the Centre for what he termed as "planned exclusion" of states governed by parties other than the BJP.
"Why this partiality against Tamil Nadu? It is not just us; the BJP government is also adopting a vengeful approach towards West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, and Telangana. They are intentionally neglecting these states in the budget and fund allocations," he charged.
When asked about the possibility of the Centre relenting and releasing the funds following the Opposition's protest, Thirumavalavan said it was difficult to predict given the government's current stance. "They are systematically ignoring states not ruled by the BJP," he added.
Dismissing reports and social media speculation regarding the stability of the DMK-led alliance in Tamil Nadu, the VCK chief urged the media to focus on substantive issues rather than "outdated" or "manufactured" controversies.