M K Stalin, the president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), addressed the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Thursday after Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay referred to Stalin’s alleged imprisonment under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) during the Emergency. Vijay’s hand‑to‑jaw gesture during his speech on September 7 prompted the DMK to protest, sparking chaos in the House. Stalin later clarified that the gesture was unintentional.
In a nearly ten‑minute video posted on X, Stalin recounted his arrest on 31 January 1976 and the harsh conditions he endured at Chennai Central prison. He claimed that police brutality, including beatings by other inmates, led to the death of fellow DMK member Chitti Babu and fractured his own jawbone. Stalin described the prison as a place where leprosy patients were kept, with inmates forced to share cramped, unsanitary living conditions and subjected to nightly beatings.
The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) responded by demanding official documentation of Stalin’s detention. The party’s IT Wing accused the video of being an “engineered attempt” to deflect from governance issues and criticized the lack of primary evidence, such as detention orders or prison movement receipts, in Stalin’s account. TVK also alleged that the video’s production included visible jump‑cuts, suggesting a manufactured script.
Stalin dismissed the allegations as politically motivated lies, stating that Vijay’s reference to MISA was correct and that his broken jaw remains a “brave scar” of history. He urged decorum in the Assembly and criticized the TVK government’s welfare delivery, while TVK maintained that the former chief minister’s claims could not be verified without official proof.
