After a marathon meeting with three Union Ministers, dispatched by the Prime Minister to mollify Karunanidhi, the DMK chief on Monday claimed the three Ministers were in agreement with his demand on the Sri lankan issue. However, the Central emissaries did not confirm his assertion and said they would convey the DMK chief’s view to the Prime Minister and the Congress president.
“The Congress leaders who called on me were in agreement with the demands put forward by us. We want the Centre to introduce our demands as a resolution and get it passed in Parliament,” Karunanidhi said.
He was speaking to the media after a 150-minute meeting with AK Antony, P Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad. Karunanidhi had threatened to withdraw support to the UPA Government if it did not back his stand on the UNHRC Sri lankan resolution.
“The strained ties between the Congress and the DMK could be restored if our demands are met,” said Karunanidhi. Though there were reports of the DMK quitting UPA and snapping its ties with the Congress, party insiders said it is premature to reach such a conclusion.
Antony, Chidambaram and Azad, who came out of the CIT Colony residence of Karunanidhi after the meeting, looked exhausted and disappointed. “We discussed the contents of the letters sent by
Karunanidhi to the Prime Minister and the Congress president and some of the amendments which we had suggested. We will report to the Prime Minister and the Congress President about this meeting in person,” Azad, who is incharge of the Congress affairs in Tamil Nadu, told the waiting reporters after the meeting.
But he declined to elaborate further indicating that the mission is not yet over. Karunanidhi wants India to take a tough posture in the United Nations Human Rights Council session being held at Geneva on the Sri lankan Tamil issue. Antony and Chidambaram refused to speak to the media.
In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister and Congress president, the DMK chief wanted India to declare that genocide and war crimes had been committed and inflicted on Eelam Tamils by the Sri lankan Army and Administrators. He also demanded the creation of a credible and independent international commission of enquiry in a time-bound manner into the allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity and violation of international human rights law and crime of genocide against Tamils perpetrated by the Sri lankan Army.
Being a seasoned politician, Karunanidhi knows well the repercussions of withdrawing support to the UPA at this juncture. With Chief Minister Jayalalithaa donning the role of the commander of the Tamils fighting for justice in Sri lanka, Karunanidhi may find it difficult to survive if the life-supporting device provided by the UPA Government is lost. Though the Congress has become political untouchables in Tamil Nadu, the DMK wants to continue with it because of the comforts of power. Since his children Alagiri, Stalin and Kanimozhi are enmeshed in cases ranging from murder, granite scam, land grabbing and of course the infamous 2G spectrum scam, Karunanidhi cannot afford to cut off the ‘oxygen’ he receives from New Delhi.
Political observers in Chennai are of the view that the dissidence shown by Karunanidhi over the last couple of days is nothing but a shadow boxing in which he wanted to score some points against Jayalalithaa. The arrival of the three senior union cabinet ministers from New Delhi exclusively for an audience with him has succeeded in regaining a part of the political space he had to secede to Jayalalithaa in the recent past.
Meanwhile, the Government on Monday said that the “call” will be taken after studying the final draft of the US-backed resolution even as India’s Representative to the UN in Geneva will be here on Tuesday for consultations on it.
“The Foreign Secretary has also asked our Permanent Representative to the UN Dilip Sinha to come over to Delhi on Tuesday. So that we can have consultations in the matter as it is an important matter for us and he will be able to brief senior officials of the government on what are the ground realities in Geneva and latest position on that” the official spokesperson in the Ministry of External Affairs said.
On Sunday, the Government had clarified its statement appreciating the Sri lankan Government for implementing India’s suggestions to implement the recommendations of the lessons learnt and Reconciliation Commission (llRC) Report and to promote trilingual policy at the meeting of working group at UN Human Rights Council on March 15 in Geneva.
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