Ruckus in House over MDMK 'support' to LTTE

Chennai, Mar 29: Members of the Marumalarchi DMK (MDMK) and the Congress almost came to blows in the Tamil Nadu Assembly today when they engaged in a heated arguement on the former supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) issue, triggering uproarious scenes.

Mr Veera Elavarasan (MDMK), who was participating in the debate on the budget for the year 2007-08, justified the party's stand on supporting the Tigers in their struggle for freedom, when Congress members raised objections.

Even as Mr Elavarasan said they supported the Tigers only in their fight to secure rights for the Tamils in Sri Lanka and never encouraged them in indulging in violent acts in the state, Congress members stood up and shouted him down, plunging the House into noisy scenes.

As they were trading charges against each other, Mr R Varadarajan, who was seated on the last row, rushed down towards the third row, where the Congress members were seated and almost came to blows when other members prevented him from confrontations. After Speaker R Avudaiyappan warned the members of stern action they resumed their seats.

The Congress members charged the MDMK with holding out a threat through the LTTE and wanted the government to take stern action.

When Mr Elavarasan said the party never supported torrorism, Congress Floor Leader D Sudarsanam said the very fact that former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had arrested MDMK General Secretary Vaiko under the now defunct POTA, would speak volumes as who had supported terrorism.

UNI