Lanka Tamils: Karuna calls all-party meet.,.........

Lanka Tamils: Karuna calls all-party meet


CHENNAI: After a brief lull, parties in Tamil Nadu are set to raise the Sri Lankan Tamil issue in a big way once again. Chief minister M Karunanidhi will chair an urgent meeting of leaders of all political parties on Tuesday to discuss steps to put pressure on the Centre to intervene in the matter. Main opposition AIADMK, however, said it would boycott the meeting, slamming it as a move to hoodwink people. CPI, which has been strongly espousing the Tamil cause in recent months, said it would be unable to participate in the meeting, as it has already announced a picketing programme in front of the central government offices on the same day on the same issue.

MDMK, an ally of AIADMK, also said it would stay away from the meeting. As the Sri Lankan military claims victory after victory in the battlefield, the parties are expected to step up efforts to halt the Army's operations. "Every day, we are getting disturbing reports of Tamils losing their lives and possessions and survivors living in perpetual fear,'' Karunanidhi told reporters in Chennai on Monday. "The meeting will discuss the issues to be taken up with the Centre and further steps in this regard,'' he said. He appealed to all parties to send their president, general secretary or legislature party leader to offer their suggestions. This will be the second all-party meeting on the issue in recent weeks. The meeting has been convened in consultation with PMK, Karunanidhi said.

The close cooperation between the CM and the PMK leader is significant because it was only in June that PMK had been jettisoned from the DMK-led front in the state. The move is seen as a precursor to PMK being wooed back into the DMK-fold ahead of next year's Lok Sabha elections. In a statement, AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa said her party's stand was that the CM should step down and dissolve the Assembly in protest against the Centre's failure to solve the Lankan problem. All MPs from the state should resign and withdraw their support to the UPA regime, she said.-The Time of India