Jaya demands dismissal of DMK Govt for hailing LTTE member

Chennai, Nov 4:The soulful poem penned by DMK patriarch and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi mourning the November two killing of LTTE's political wing head S P Thamilchelvan by the Sri Lankan Military, has evoked sharp criticism from AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa, who has demanded the dismissal of his Government for supporting the banned LTTE. The poem penned by Mr Karunanidhi was circulated to the media here yesterday.

In a statement here, Ms Jayalalithaa even demanded a probe by the Centre into how far Mr Karunanidhi, who had scripted the poem hailing a LTTE leader, had helped the outfit ever since he assumed power 17 months back.

She termed the poetry and its distribution through Government channels ''unconstitutional.'' ''It is highly condemnable that a Chief minister has hailed a member of the banned LTTE, whose leader V Prabhakaran is yet to be extradited to India to stand trial in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case,'' she added.

Recalling the dismissal of the Karunanidhi Government in 1991 for allegedly passing on to the LTTE the confidential information he had received from the Centre, Ms Jayalalithaa said it was the responsibility of the Centre to find out in what manner the Chief Minister had clandestinely supported the outfit during the last 17 months of his tenure.

She said the shadow of suspicion raised against him by the Jain Commission, which probed the conspiracy aspects of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, should also be closely scrutinised.

''Whenever he comes to power, Mr Karunanidhi is supporting terrorist groups'', she alleged.

Referring to the recent arrest and release of VCK functionary Vanniyarasu for allegedly smuggling materials to the LTTE, she said Mr Karunanidhi had maintained silence on the issue. The poem hailing the LTTE member was the continuance of his alleged support to the outfit, she charged and demanded the Centre to take steps to dismiss the DMK government.

Supporters of the DMK like the PMK and VCK, who staunchly espouse the cause of Tamil eelam, also condemned the killing of Thamilselvan.

But their leaders avoided glorifying him and restricted themselves in saying that his death would be a setback to the peace process and sought India's intervention to convince its Lankan counterpart to arrive at a negotiated solution to the ethnic crisis.

VCK Leader Thol Thirumavalavan also held a condolence meeting at his party office here, in which the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian from Sri Lanka, Sivajilingam participated.

UNI