UPA must drop IUML from ministry: Venkaiah Naidu

Chennai, Sep 28: Senior BJP Leader M Venkaiah Naidu today demanded the UPA Government at the Centre drop the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) from the Ministry in the wake of a judicial commission's findings that suggests some party activists were involved in Marad massacre in Kerala in 2003.

''The Congress and the Communist parties, which have allied with the IUML at one time or the other, should come out clean and make their stand clear on the issue,'' he told a press conference here.

He said the Governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu should not have sympathy for outfits like Abdul Nazer Mahdany's People's Democratic Party and the Al-Umma even on the humanitarian grounds.

Mr Naidu also demanded stringent action against officials indicted by the Justice Thomas P Joseph Commission for their failure to take timely and preventive action.

Former IUML MLAs who had been named by the Commission for their involvement in the conspiracy should also be prosecuted, he added.

The Commission's report on the killing of nine people on the Marad beach in Kozhikode district was tabled in the Kerala Assembly yesterday.

UNI