Opposition Leader Udhayanidhi Stalin said withdrawing cases against farmers was not a first and pointed out that more than 5,000 cases registered against protesters had been withdrawn during the previous DMK government.
Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay announced in the Tamil Nadu Assembly under Rule 110 that cases registered against farmers and teachers who had participated in protests during the previous DMK regime would be withdrawn.
Reacting to the announcement, Udhayanidhi Stalin said a Minister had claimed that withdrawing cases against farmers was being done for the first time in history, but termed the statement incorrect.
He said the previous government headed by former Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had withdrawn more than 5,000 cases against people who had protested against the Citizenship Amendment Act, agricultural laws, the eight-lane road project and the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, among other issues.
Udhayanidhi Stalin said those cases were not withdrawn under Rule 110. Officials were called and instructed to withdraw the cases, after which the decision was announced in the Assembly, he said.
He also objected to the Agriculture Minister’s reference to the cases against farmers as “false cases” and requested that the expression be removed from the Assembly records.
Speaker J.C.T. Prabhakar accepted the request and said the words “false cases” would be removed from the Assembly records.
