Assembly debate veers to arithmetic
Additions and subtractions made their way to the Assembly debate and taking a sarcastic turn, with State Finance Minister Thangam Thenarasu warning the AIADMK to be careful with their arithmetic as someone as cunning as the legendary Chanakya was making calculations on the future of the party, its followers and acolytes, even as their member P Thangamani was miscalculating the cost of laptops.;
Chennai: Additions and subtractions made their way to the Assembly debate and taking a sarcastic turn, with State Finance Minister Thangam Thenarasu warning the AIADMK to be careful with their arithmetic as someone as cunning as the legendary Chanakya was making calculations on the future of the party, its followers and acolytes, even as their member P Thangamani was miscalculating the cost of laptops.
In his reply to the debate on the State Budget for 2025-26, Thenarasu said on Friday that Thangamani, calculating the cost of a free laptop to be given to 20 lakh students to Rs 10,000 a piece, went wrong as the government’s announced outlay of Rs 2,000 crore was only for the first year of the two-year scheme.
So when the second year’s allocation was made, the cost would work out to Rs 20,000 for a laptop and the government would issue tenders for supply of quality laptops that the students would love to use, he said debunking Thangamani’s claim made on Thursday that quality laptops cannot be purchased for Rs 10,000.
Expressing deep concern over the future of the AIADMK and its cade with whom he had been working with for years on the political fields, the Minister said that if they were to make another miscalculation like Thangamani did on the laptops, all that they had on their lap would be taken away.
Spotting a smile lightening up the face of BJP member Vanathi Srinivasan at that point, Thenarasu said that the smile let the cat out of the bag. Thangamani said that his party was ideologically strong enough and would not allow anyone to deceive them with their additions and subtractions. Chief Minister M K Stalin wished him all the best for not allowing anyone to take them for a ride.
Accolades came to Thenarasu from Chief Minister M K Stalin for the manner in which he handled the question raised by Thangamani. In a message on X, Stalin granted his ministerial colleague centum marks for the reply and also the Budget that had been provided for everyone. Stalin also referred to the television sets distributed to the people during the regime of M Karunanidhi and said that they were still working, testifying their quality.
Speaking to the media outside the House, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami said that they knew how to manage their account and told the Finance Minister to implement his account in the Budget properly. Thenarasu’s concern for the AIADMK was like a wolf worrying about the lamb getting drenched in the rain, he said.
His party would not lose its self-respect at any cost, Palaniswami said, adding that it was ideologically strong and would think about alliances only during the elections unlike the DMK and its allies who put on a farcical sense of unity.