CM Karunanidhi joins issue with PMK

(February 11, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Joining issue once again with PMK founder S Ramadoss for his remarks that DMK did not do anything for the Sri Lankan Tamils while in power, Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi has said that his party lost power twice for supporting the Tamils in the island nation.

Answering a set of self-styled questions on Tuesday from a hospital where he is undergoing treatment, he dismissed Ramadoss charge as incorrect that the DMK was not firm in its demand for ceasefire, when it convened its executive to decide future course of action on the Lankan Tamils issue.

The second resolution adopted at the meeting, had clearly said there should be a ceasefire for restoration of peace for Tamils in Lanka, the Chief Minister said adding ‘if someone is determined to give false information, we could do nothing’.

He said: ‘In 1976, the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had cited the DMK government’s support to Sri Lankan Tamils as one of the reasons for its dismissal and again in 1991 our government was dismissed for the same cause.’

When he was the Chief Minister in 1989 he had spoken to representatives of various Tamil militant groups in a bid to solve the issue, Karunanidhi said.

In 1990, he did not participate in the reception accorded to IPKF, condemning its ‘killings’ of Sri Lankan Tamils, he said. All these things happened when the DMK was in power, he said, adding that somebody might ask why his party did not organise any agitation while in power. DMK had organised a bandh in July 1990, when it was in power, he said.

‘Is it justified to say that the DMK is not active in solving the problem?’ the DMK leader asked. On PMK’s charge that he had not mentioned Ramadoss’s name while answering to questions raised by the party founder, Karunanidhi said, ‘I don’t want to mention Ramadoss by his name while replying to the allegations he made against me as I think it will not be decent on my part.’

On the attack on Congressmen by those who had taken up the cause of Lankan Tamils under the banner of Sri Lankan Tamils Protection Committee, that too at a time, when he called for a united approach, the DMK leader, condemning such incidents, exhorted Congressmen, not to take law into their hands and instead report such incidents to the police.

-Sri Lanka Guardian