DMK should declare no post-poll support to BJP: Chidambaram

Describing as historic blunder the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) participation in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre in 1999, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has demanded the DMK to categorically declare that it would not support the BJP after the elections.

‘Make stand clear’

A day after predicting that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) would go with the BJP after the elections, the senior Congress leader said the DMK’s stand on the issue would become clear only if party chief M. Karunanidhi announced that the party would never support the BJP after the elections under any circumstances.

“This is what the people of the State, especially minorities, backward classes, Dalits, women and the downtrodden, who aspired for a secular progressive government at the Centre, expected from Mr. Karunanidhi,” said Mr. Chidambaram in a statement here on Tuesday.

Expressing concern that the DMK was yet to make its stand clear, he said he welcomed the DMK leader’s remark, “I know my limitations,” but added that alone was not enough.

On Modi

The DMK leader should remember that the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, had been accused of violating ‘Raj dharma’ by veteran leader A. B. Vajpayee (after the post-Godhra riots).

Mr. Karunanidhi should also recall how Mr. Modi had been a ‘stony-hearted person’ and ridiculed Muslims and Christians, he said.

Mr. Chidambaram said Mr. Karunanidhi, in his statement, had tried to clarify as to why the DMK had forged an alliance with the BJP in 1999, but he was not convincing.

When the AIADMK joined hands with the BJP in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections, both the DMK and the erstwhile Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) had vehemently opposed the alliance.

When the BJP government fell a year later, after the AIADMK withdrew support, the DMK in alliance with the TMC should have defeated the BJP in the 1999 general elections and helped to form a secular and progressive government at the Centre. Instead, the DMK became a constituent of the BJP-led government and later regretted the decision, Mr. Chidambaram said.

When the BJP was in power at the Centre, Gujarat witnessed the worst communal clashes, he alleged, adding if the BJP had given an assurance that nothing wrong would happen to the minority communities, the promise was mercilessly violated.