DMK Releases Election Manifesto, Vows Release of 7 Convicts in Rajiv Gandhi Assassination Case

Chennai: The DMK released its party manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections at its headquarter on Tuesday. Less than an hour later, the AIADMK, too, released its election manifesto.

The DMK promised to take efforts for the release of the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. "The DMK urges the Central and State Governments to take appropriate action to release on humanitarian grounds the seven persons, including Perarivalan, who were convicted in the case of assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and are languishing in prison for more than 27 years," said the DMK manifesto.

The party also assured steps for waiver of all educational loans taken by students.

Against the background of agitations by state government employees seeking reversion to the old pension scheme in place of the newly-introduced contributory scheme, the DMK chief said: "We will bring back the old pension scheme for both the central and state government employees."

The DMK president said the party would revert to the administered-price mechanism to regulate the prices of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

Another key feature of the manifesto is doing away with the direct cash transfer of subsidy for the LPG and bringing down the prices of cylinders.

Moreover, the DMK said that the party will strive to bring back the subject of education to the state list as it is the champion of the state's rights. The party said that it will strive for the abolition of the NEET, which was also echoed by the AIADMK.

Both the AIADMK and the DMK promised to bring education from the concurrent list to the state list and to release the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

"AIADMK will urge the Government of India and the President of India to give due direction to the Governor of Tamil Nadu for release of the seven Tamil convicts as ordered by the Supreme Court of India and approved by the cabinet of Tamil Nadu Goverment," the party manifesto said.

Besides, both the southern parties vowed to fight against the imposition of Hindi in the state of Tami Nadu and urge the Centre to make Tamil as an official language in central government offices in the state; retrieve Kachatheevu and full statehood for Puducherry.

With inputs from Subramani M.