DMK battling pro-LTTE image yet again

DMK battling pro-LTTE image yet again

South Asian Media Net

CHENNAI: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continues to be the DMK's bugbear in Tamil Nadu. Once again, the party is struggling to fight off the image of running a Government that is soft on the Sri Lankan Tamil militant group, and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi now finds himself staving off allegations from both the opposition and his principal ally.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on Sunday and Monday expressed his unhappiness over the Congress, now his main ally, joining hands with his principal detractor, J Jayalalithaa of the ADMK, in levelling the charge that his Government was allowing the LTTE to have a free run. Speaking at a wedding on Sunday, Karunanidhi gave vent to his deep sense of hurt about Congressmen once again wielding the LTTE stick against the DMK.

'If you want to topple me on the basis of false allegations, I am ready to give up power,' Karunanidhi said, referring to the Congress. At the same time, he did not spare his pro-LTTE ally, the Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi (VCK), a Dalit party, either. 'Behave responsibly, as allies too have a responsibility to curb anti-national activities,' he said. What particularly irked him was Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's reported remark that the LTTE's activities had resumed in Tamil Nadu without any let or hindrance. He had appealed to Karunanidhi to nip the trend in the bud.

On Monday, Karunanidhi continued the theme in a statement. Rebutting Chidambaram's contention, he said that in the last 20 months, 11 LTTE men had been arrested and 12 cases registered against them. As many as 92 LTTE supporters had been arrested and of them, 40 had been detained under the National Security Act. 'Is this not 'nipping the LTTE activities in the bud'?' he asked. Pulling up a Congress legislator, C Gnanasekaran, for his accusations, Karunanidhi noted that the member had praised the 'Q' Branch of the Tamil Nadu police for arresting several LTTE men and their supporters for trying to smuggle materials to Sri Lanka.

At the same time, Gnanasekaran had criticised the State intelligence wing for doing nothing about LTTE activities. 'It is surprising that he does not know that the Q Branch functions under the intelligence wing,' the Chief Minister said. When it comes to LTTE activities in Tamil Nadu, the DMK can expect no help from the Congress, for the national party has been accusing the DMK of covert sympathy for the Tigers for a long time now.

Jayalalithaa exploited this weak link in DMK-Congress relations by pointing out in the Assembly last week that the DMK lost power in 1991 at the behest of the Congress under the late Rajiv Gandhi, whose party had put pressure on the Chandra Shekhar Government at the Centre to dismiss the Karunanidhi regime. Later, it was the Congress that withdrew support to the second United Front Government led by IK Gujral, after the latter refused the Congress demand that DMK be removed from the Government following adverse remarks against the party in the Jain Commission's interim report.

The Jain panel had blamed the DMK for creating conditions that led to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. The DMK, with just 95 MLAs in the 234-member Tamil Nadu Assembly, is dependent on the Congress, which has 35 legislators, and other allies like the Pattali Makkal Katchi, CPI (M) and CPI for its survival.