Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi has urged the Congress leadership to prevent attempts being made by “certain mischievous elements within the Congress,” to disrupt the alliance between the two parties.
The DMK wants to continue its alliance with the Congress only to prevent fundamentalist and religious forces from gaining entry into the State, he said.
Addressing a DMK public meeting on Fort Ground here on Saturday night, Mr. Karunanidhi said that the Central government was supportive of the Tamil Nadu government and vice-versa. “This should be accepted by all, including some Congressmen who try to disrupt the alliance.”
He said that the DMK could defeat fundamentalism only by joining hands with the Congress. Attacking the Communists, he said they walked out of the alliance with the DMK on their own, citing its refusal to break with the Congress over the nuclear deal issue.
Citing his participation in the agitation against the atrocities on Dalits at Thirukkuvalai during his earlier years, Mr. Karunanidhi said that he was still a Communist. “One need not be in a Communist party to be a communist. There is communism in me, but it is long since the so-called communist parties jettisoned communism.”
Referring to the spectrum scandal, the resignation of A. Raja as Minister for Communications and Information Technology and the Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the scam, Mr. Karunanidhi said that when there was a demand for JPC probe into the Mundra scandal in Parliament during the Nehru era, the then Finance Minister T.T. Krishnamachari (TTK), who came under fire, was advised by the Congress to resign, and the latter tendered his resignation. The demand for JPC probe died with the resignation of TTK.
“The Kalkis and Dinamanis did not bother to write anything about the Mundra scandal after that. But, even after Mr. Raja resigned over the spectrum issue, the Opposition and certain sections of the press continue to harp on the need for a JPC probe just because Mr. Raja is a Dalit.”
He accused those sections of the press as being partisan, as reflected in their “failure” to write about the attitude of Jayalalithaa, former Chief Minister, in dragging her feet over the assets case before a Bangalore court. He urged people to prepare themselves for a “battle between the Aryas and Dravidas.”
