Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief C Joseph Vijay on Tuesday clarified that a gesture he made during his Assembly speech was inadvertent and was not intended to hurt anyone personally. His clarification came after the DMK accused him of making a reference to former Chief Minister MK Stalin's physical appearance.
In a post on X, Vijay said his body language during his response to the police department's grant request in the Tamil Nadu Assembly on September 7 was not intentional and should not be interpreted as a personal attack.
The controversy arose after Vijay made a gesture by placing his right palm against his jaw while referring to the history of the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA). The gesture was interpreted by critics as a reference to Stalin's broken jaw, which he suffered after allegedly being assaulted while in custody following his arrest during the Emergency.
"I wish to clarify that, during my response speech on the police department's grant request in the Legislative Assembly on 7.9.2026, my body language, which inadvertently came across in between, was not in any way intentional," Vijay said.
He added that the gesture should not be interpreted as an act intended to hurt anyone's feelings on a personal level.
The issue triggered criticism from CPI(M) state secretary P Shanmugam, who accused Vijay of making a personal attack on Stalin. Shanmugam said ridiculing someone's physical appearance was unacceptable and particularly inappropriate for a Chief Minister.
The controversy came amid heated exchanges in the Tamil Nadu Assembly over Vijay's remarks targeting the previous DMK government. Vijay had cited Enforcement Directorate material and the Sarkaria Commission while making allegations of corruption against DMK leaders. The DMK demanded that the remarks be removed from the Assembly records.
DMK legislators continued their protest after Speaker JCD Prabhakar rejected their demand to expunge the remarks. Several MLAs gathered near the Speaker's podium and raised slogans before marshals were ordered to remove them from the House.
The DMK has rejected Vijay's allegations and accused the government of diverting attention from questions concerning the current law-and-order situation in the state.
The latest clarification from Vijay seeks to distance his Assembly gesture from any personal attack, as the political confrontation between the ruling TVK and the DMK continues to intensify.
