CHENNAI: Former Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin slammed the ruling TVK government over the police crackdown and subsequent arrest of nurses demonstrating for their livelihood rights.
In a statement, the opposition leader questioned whether healthcare workers have become the latest victims of what he described as backstabbing governance that routinely discards its election commitments.
Expressing severe condemnation of the police action, Stalin asserted that the nurses were engaged in peaceful, democratic protests demanding critical welfare measures, including job regularisation, employment security, and equal pay for equal work.
He criticized the administration for refusing to engage in meaningful dialogue with the striking medical staff while simultaneously using law enforcement to arrest them without empathy.
He pointed to allegations raised by the nurses’ legal counsel, who claimed that representatives were deceitfully taken into custody under the pretext of being escorted to negotiation talks, following which the police rounded up demonstrators directly from the protest venue.
Targeting Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, Stalin highlighted what he called a stark contradiction between the ruling party’s past promises and its present conduct.
He noted that while in the opposition, TVK leaders visited protest sites and offered full solidarity, followed by election pledges guaranteeing permanent employment for contract nurses, yet once in power, the administration met those identical demands with police detentions.
He criticized the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues for administrative incompetence and questioned whether cutting off power to the protest site and forcefully bundling out demonstrators using phone flashlights in the dark represented the promised political change and democratic values.
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