The Hindu : Front Page : I don’t see Prabakaran as a terrorist: Karunanidhi

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I don’t see Prabakaran as a terrorist: Karunanidhi

“ I will deeply regret it if he is killed”

Chennai: Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi on Sunday said he did not “see” LTTE chief V. Prabakaran as a terrorist and would be saddened if he was killed in the ongoing fighting in Sri Lanka.

“Prabakaran is my good friend. I am not a terrorist,” the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister told NDTV in an interview when he was asked whether he viewed Prabakaran as a terrorist.

Subsequently asked by his daughter and DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, who was present during the interview, whether he saw Prabakaran as a terrorist, Mr. Karunanidhi, speaking in Tamil, said, “Naan appadi paarkkalai (I don’t see that way).”

“Those in Prabakaran’s group have taken to terrorism. But that is not his [Prabakaran’s] fault.”

“I will deeply regret if Prabakaran is killed [in the ongoing offensive] … for it would be because of lack of unity among the Tamil groups,” Mr. Karunanidhi said in a reference to the fratricidal war between Tamil groups, whose members have been killed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Mr. Karunanidhi said the LTTE’s goals were “legitimate,” but it had adopted “wrong methods.”

“Their goals are right, but method is wrong,” he said about the organisation, which took to armed struggle in the early 1980s in a bid to secure equal rights for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Mr. Karunanidhi said he differed with Prabakaran on his policy of delivering a dictator-type rule if he came to power, as stated by the LTTE chief in a magazine interview a few years ago. — PTI

Terrorist outfit: Sibal

New Delhi Special Correspondent reports:

Rejecting Mr. Karunanidhi’s statement, the Congress said the party saw Prabakaran as a terrorist and the LTTE as an extremist outfit.

Party spokesman Kapil Sibal said the DMK chief’s remarks could be his “personal opinion.” The party would ask for the extradition of Prabakaran if Sri Lanka captured him alive.

“It may be his personal opinion. But we do believe that the LTTE is a terrorist organisation and all those involved in the LTTE’s activities are terrorists,” Mr. Sibal said.

“Strange statement”

The BJP described Mr. Karunanidhi’s remarks as a “strange statement.” “Someone who has been accused of masterminding and orchestrating the killing of the former Prime Minister is being given a certificate by a Congress ally,” BJP MP Arun Shourie told journalists.

He said the Congress disrupted Parliament for days for not taking action against the DMK after Mr. Karunanidhi was indicted by the Jain Commission, which looked into the conspiracy angle of Rajiv’s killing.

“At least the Congress is telling the truth that Prabakaran is a terrorist,” Mr. Shourie said.

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