Referring to his expression in the Assembly, Vijay said, “My body language was an accidental expression. I would like to make it known that it was not in any way intentional.”
In a statement posted on social media, he further said, “Therefore, I kindly request that it should not be interpreted as an act intended to hurt anyone's feelings on a personal level.”
The controversy centred on Vijay holding his jaw with one hand and appearing to lift it while slightly bending his head to one side. Some social media users claimed that the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister was mocking Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M K Stalin, whose jaw was fractured during his incarceration in the infamous Emergency of 1975-77.
The gesture was made while Vijay was targeting the main opposition DMK over alleged corruption, citing official ED documents and the Sarkaria Commission report of the 1970s.
Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary P Shanmugam criticised Vijay's actions, saying that former chief minister Stalin was severely beaten by police during the Emergency and that his jaw was broken.
“Body shaming is condemnable no matter who does it. The chief minister himself having done it is an irresponsible act,” Shanmugam said in a statement posted on social media.
The Marxist party leader also said that turning the legislative Assembly into a venue for personal attacks that do not help public welfare in any way, or converting it into a platform solely to praise one's own leader, was completely unethical.
The CPI-M is one of the parties that support the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam regime, which survives because of support from Congress, Left parties, IUML and the VCK.
Against this backdrop, Vijay clarified that his expression was entirely unintentional.
Over the years, some All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leaders and supporters had claimed that Stalin had not been jailed under the MISA (Maintenance of Internal Security Act) during the Emergency. However, they had not disputed Stalin's imprisonment.
In 2019, Stalin had said that being asked to prove that he was arrested under MISA was humiliating. He had also said that discussions on the issue were unwarranted.
In his autobiography, Ungalil Oruvan (One among you), Stalin describes his arrest in 1976 and subsequent imprisonment. He briefly refers to the jail being transformed into a torture chamber that echoed death cries.
Stalin, in the first and only volume of his autobiography released so far in 2022, wrote about his first day in jail and said that he received the strength that day to face anything in life.
With that observation, the first volume ends.
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