Centre should not have invited Karunanidhi: Jaya

Chennai, Dec 18 (UNI) Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today said the Centre should not have invited Chief Minister M Karunanidhi for the Chief Ministers conference on terrorism as he was openly ''supporting the banned LTTE'' and demanded the Central government to bring back POTA to deal with terrorism in the country.

In a strongly worded statement here, she said Mr Karunanidhi, who ''offered open support'' to the LTTE, had no moral right to attend the conference, convened by Prime Minister to discuss the steps to be taken to contain terrorism in the country.

''It is a shame that Mr Karunanidhi is taking part in the meeting. He has no moral right to participate in the meeting and it is wrong on the part of the Centre to invite him for the conference.

The Centre should not have invited Mr Karunanidhi for the conference,'' she said.

Contending that the now defunct Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) was the best remedy to deal with terrorist activities in the country, she said the Congress-led UPA government should realise that its decision to repeal POTA was wrong and bring it back to contain terrorism.

When the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government brought the Act, Ms Jayalalithaa, who was in power in the state, had utilised it and arrested MDMK General Secretary Vaiko and others under the Act for offering support to the LTTE.

However, after the Congress-led UPA government came to power in 2004, the POTA was abolished and it had emboldened the LTTE supporters to raise their heads in Tamil Nadu, she said.

Ms Jayalalithaa launched a scathing attack on the DMK government for ''supporting'' the banned LTTE in the state and failing to take action against its supporters like Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) Leader Thol Thirumavalavan for saying that there was nothing wrong in supporting the LTTE.

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