Union Minister and MDMK leader M. Kannappan said today that anything was possible in Tamil Nadu over the state government’s decision to invoke POTA against him. He also claimed that no one could be arrested under POTA for providing just ‘‘moral support’’ to a banned organisation. Instead, Kannappan accused Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa of trying to destroy all manifestations of Tamil culture and frowning upon support to Tamils anywhere in the world.He quoted Attorney General Soli Sorabjee’s clarifications to the Centre when Jayalalithaa wrote to the PM regarding similar utterances made by him last year. The AG had said mere expression of support to a terrorist outfit would not amount to an offence under POTA.‘‘Kannappan’s statement cannot be regarded as inviting support to LTTE within the meaning of Section 21 (1) and there has been no contravention of POTA,’’ Sorabjee had said then. ‘‘Tamils live in 40 nations and the MDMK will give moral support to movements for equality and justice for Tamils in all these places,’’ Kannappan asserted.Claiming that POTA was used to settle scores, he said there was no need for him to step down as Jayalalithaa demanded. ‘‘I will explain to the Prime Minister if he wants,’’ Kannappan said.Meanwhile, speaking to reporters outside the POTA court at Poonamallee near Chennai, MDMK general secretary Vaiko termed the state government’s move as ‘‘sheer political vendetta’’. Kannappan had not done anything to disturb public peace, Vaiko noted.He said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa wrote to Vajpayee only after Kannappan blamed the state government for not properly utilising funds granted by the Ministry of Non Conventional Energy headed by him.In Chennai, DMK president M. Karunanidhi said the episode was ‘‘yet another proof of the Act’s misuse’’. He said DMK had been demanding POTA’s repeal on the plea that it was being misused in Tamil Nadu. On the BJP’s rejection of DMK’s demand to repeal the Act, he said the BJP had demanded the repeal of TADA, enacted by the Rajiv Gandhi government. ‘‘Their double standards was not acceptable,’’ he said. Defending the DMK’s ‘‘jail bharo’’ agitation on December 1 demanding repeal of POTA, Karunanidhi said the stir was not against the Centre. ‘‘But we are free to draw the Centre’s attention to our problems.’’
