We told you so, says United Front on Jain panel report

CHENNAI, April 4: Reacting to the clean chit given to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the Jain Commission's final report as published...

CHENNAI, April 4: Reacting to the clean chit given to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the Jain Commission’s final report as published in The Indian Express, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi said on Saturday that "I have got both brickbats and bouquets in my six decades of public life. But I have considered both these as one and continued my political journey."

On the charge made by the Commission that former DMK minister Subbu Lakshmi Jagadisan had reportedly harboured some LTTE members in her farmhouse and even arranged for the escape of Sivarasan, Karunanidhi said, "I can comment on that only after going through the Jain Commission’s official report."When asked what he felt about the Congress withdrawing support to the United Front Government on the basis of Jain panel’s interim report — now that the final report had absolved the DMK — the chief minister said, "I’ll be happy if those who unnecessarily maligned the DMK and made baseless charges against the party nowunderstand the truth."

Meanwhile, Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) president G K Moopanar said today that the final report of the Jain Commission vindicated his party’s position that the DMK was in no way implicated in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

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"Had I felt differently, I would have come out with an appropriate response much earlier. I always said this (interim) report was wrong," Moopanar told mediapersons here.

The TMC did not then break away from the DMK, Moopanar added, because ever since the interim report was placed on the table of the Lok Sabha in November, he was sure the DMK would be exonerated.

Nevertheless, the situation had to be looked at in two different phases: pre-Rajiv Gandhi assassination and post-assassination. In the first period, all the political parties, including the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, supported the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The basic problem, he maintained, was the shift in the attitudes of all these parties afterRajiv’s death.

On the pleaby AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha that the DMK Government should be dismissed invoking Article 356 of the Constitution, Moopanar demanded to know the grounds on which the dismissal was sought. He disagreed with the view that the dismissal plea could be based on perceived failure of the DMK Government on the law and order front, saying the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu had to be viewed in the context of pre-Coimbatore bomb blasts and post-bomb blasts. After the bomb blasts in Coimbatore in February, the DMK Government had taken corrective steps to maintain law and order, the TMC leader asserted. "Invoking Article 356 is a serious affair; it cuts both ways," he said, recalling the Supreme Court judgement in the Bommai case that a state government should be removed only if it got defeated on the floor of the Assembly.

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Meanwhile, in New Delhi, the CPI(M) charged the Congress with having taken "an irresponsible and indiscreet stand" on the Commission’s interim findings, which provoked it to withdrawsupport from the UF, "facilitating" the installation of a BJP-led Government at the Centre.

Central rule threat

The Central Government will not hesitate to impose President’s rule in Tamil Nadu if the DMK government fails to curb militant activities and bomb culture, Union Law Minister M Thambithurai said in Karur on Friday.