TN Minister Thennarasu cancelled Lanka trip before clearance, why blame Centre, asks BJP leader

Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu cancelled his trip to Sri Lanka on his own accord despite the Centre giving its nod for his visit to attend the ''Naam 200'' event, BJP state vice president Narayanan Thirupathy said on Tuesday.

Accusing the ruling DMK of playing ''silly politics,'' he said Thennarasu cancelled the flight ticket to Lanka even before the Centre cleared his visit.

Also, the Sri Lankan government had clearly clarified that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin's video speech could not be telecast as it was received late, Narayanan said reacting to the state minister's charge that he had to call off the trip as till 8.30 pm on November 1 he did not get the ''political clearance'' from the Centre to attend the Naam 200 (we are 200), the bicentenary of the arrival of Indian-origin Tamils (IOTs) to Sri Lanka.

The minister, while speaking to reporters in Virudhunagar on Monday, sought to know why the video address of the Tamil Nadu chief minister was not telecast.

''I was constrained to cancel my visit to Sri Lanka on the night of November 1, as till 8.30 pm, I could not get the 'political' clearance from the Central government,'' Thennarasu, who was to have represented the state government at the event which took place at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium, Colombo, told reporters.

''The DMK is once again doing silly politics. The Sri Lankan government has very clearly clarified that the Tamil Nadu chief minister's speech was delayed because they had received it in the last hour of the meeting,'' Thirupathy told PTI.

The Central government cleared the minister's visit to Sri Lanka but even before that, Thennarasu cancelled the ticket to Sri Lanka, Thirupathy said and asked ''why unnecessarily blame the BJP and the Central government here?''

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)