Will he? Won't he? Karuna renews pullout threatMONDAY, 18 MARCH 2013 00:53 KUMAR CHELLAPPAN | CHENNAI
The DMK will snap its ties with the Congress and quit the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) if the Union Government fails to amend the US resolution on Sri Lanka to be introduced in the United Nations Human Right Council meeting in Geneva. This was announced by Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the 90-year-old president of the DMK.
“If India does not make amendments in the US resolution, incorporating an independent international probe into the alleged human right violations and genocide perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Army on the ethnic Tamils during the Eelam War, there is a doubt whether we will continue in the UPA,” Karunanidhi told reporters at the DMK headquarters in Chennai on Sunday.
The DMK chief said he has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the issue. “I am writing this letter with immense mental agony and feeling of having been let down by the Government of India,” he said.
The DMK chief wants the Centre to incorporate two points as amendments in the US-sponsored resolution.
“Declare that genocide and war crimes had been committed and inflicted on the Eelam Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army. We want to set up a credible and independent international commission of investigation to probe in a time-bound manner into the war crimes, violations of human rights law and the crime of genocide,” Karunanidhi said. He said if the UPA Government fails to meet his demands, he would consider withdrawing support.
It is not known whether Karunanidhi would stick to his ultimatum and withdraw support since he has played this tantrum many times in the past only to surrender meekly when he gets a call from 10, Janpath.
What upset Karunanidhi this time was the hijacking of the Sri Lankan Tamil issue by chief minister and the AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa, his nemesis.
Karunanidhi was also influenced by media reports about the agitation launched by college students in the State. With round-the-clock Tamil news channels repeatedly beaming pictures of the students’ agitation, the DMK patriarch might have felt the Sri Lankan Tamil issue has gone out of control in Tamil Nadu. “We are going to telecast each and every incident happening anywhere in the State to make this a major event,” a senior journalist working with a popular news channel told The Pioneer.
The bashing up of Gnanaloka Thero, an innocent Sri Lankan Budhist monk, by LTTE and Tamil chauvinist elements at Thanjavur on Saturday has created a notion in the minds of the DMK leaders that the word Sri Lanka has become a hate word in the State. Ceeman Francis, the leader of the group Naam Tamilar which assaulted the 46-year-old-monk was the prime accused in a sexual abuse case filed by a popular Tamil actress.
The State Government has ordered the closure of all arts and science colleges indefinitely following indefinite fast launched by a section of the student community.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/home/online-channel/360-todays-newspaper/133943-will-he-wont-he-karuna-renews-pullout-threat.html