States » SouthPosted at: Oct 22 2026 6:40PM


Shedding saffron skin, Annamalai takes on Modi, ridicules BJP for manufacturing enemies at all times

MC Rajan
Chennai, Oct 22 (UNI) Shedding his saffron skin and trying to occupy the pro-Tamil political space, former Tamil Nadu BJP president K.Annamalai has decided to take on Prime Minister Modi head-on, ridiculing the BJP for manufacturing enemies at all times, and castigating the saffron party for forgetting that it has been in power for more than a decade.
In a vociferous defence of the CJP’s right to protest and criticising the Delhi Police, he directed his ire at the BJP establishment and the Modi government. “The central government forgets it’s been in power in Delhi for 12 plus years and still manufactures an enemy at all times to keep itself relevant. Sadly, that is a pity!”, he said in a social media post late last evening, debunking the charge that the CJP protest is anti-national and foreign-funded.
“Enough of this anti-national thing. FCRA is controlled by MHA. All agencies don’t report to the opposition parties in the country. All the embassies outside are equipped with enough people to track any Indian national in hand in glove with foreign enemies. It’s honestly very tiring and boring to see all protests and statements being called as anti-national and funded by forces from outside,” read the post, recalling Modi, as Gujarat Chief Minister in 2011, supporting the protest in Ramlila Maidan, Delhi, saying that had his hands not been tied, he would wage a war against the central government.
“Today, you could be jailed indefinitely; your surety bonds could be rejected; and surprisingly, a Special Executive Magistrate will play circles around you when he/she is empowered to deal with preventive bond cases. If you question the violation of due process of law in
a democracy, you would be called names, and a barrage of attacks would follow, including being labelled a Foreign Agent,” he said, citing the ordeal faced by CJP leaders.
Further, Annamalai posed five hard questions to the union Government, seeking answers and not ‘whataboutism’. They included denotification of Jantar Mantar as a protest site, the system of empowering an Assistant Commissioner of Police as Special Executive Magistrate and action taken on the use of pellet guns in the Anti-NEET protest. Raising the question of whether BJP functionaries who jumped barricades were dealt with in the same manner, he said, ‘Definitely No’.
A former IPS officer of Karnataka cadre, parachuted into the Dravidian heartland by his mentor BL Santosh, Annamalai is progressively erasing his saffron past to don the cloak of Tamil Nadu’s identity politics. He quit the BJP for good to pursue his Chief Ministerial ambition and launched his own political vehicle – ‘We The Leaders’ movement.
While his saffron supporters are rattled, Annamalai’s defence of the CJP is to dismantle the perception of him as a BJP ‘Durandhar’ and gain political mileage. With Chief Minister Vijay keeping a studied silence on the protests in Delhi, he is trying to position himself as
the prime anti-BJP force, since the anti-Modi and anti-BJP platform is an important political plank, explain observers. But the question remains whether the leopard can change its spots, they ask.
UNI MCR GV
Tags: #Shedding saffron skin# Annamalai takes on Modi# ridicules BJP for manufacturing enemies at all times
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