DMK, Congress playing politics: CPI, BJP

IANS

CHENNAI: The Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday assailed External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for allegedly using the plight of the suffering Tamil minority in Sri Lanka for political ends.

"The discussions between Karunanidhi and Mukherjee (Sunday) were centred round the crisis that could have arisen due to the resignation of (16) DMK MPs from parliament. Later, for appearances' sake, the duo merely issued open-ended statements around probabilities of the Sri Lankan military establishment's future stoppage of assaults on innocent Tamil civilians and nothing more," CPI state secretary D. Pandian said.

Senior BJP leader Ila Ganeshan said separately: "The threat of the resignation of MPs from parliament was a mere drama aimed at diverting attention of the masses from the urgent issues in Tamil Nadu like the electricity shortage, law and order problems and rising prices. None expected the resignations to be handed over on Oct 29 to the speaker. The suffering Sri Lankan Tamil minority has only served the narrow political ends of the DMK and the Congress."

A decision was taken during a meeting of the ruling DMK and its allies Oct 14 that all MPs from Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry would collectively resign from parliament if the central government did not take decisive steps before Oct 29 to end the killings of the Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.

The DMK's 16 Lok Sabha members and four Rajya Sabha members handed over letters resigning from parliament to party president Karunanidhi.

Since Karunanidhi issued several statements to record his appreciation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's attempts to alleviate the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils.

The decision to defer the resignation threat emerged after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's senior advisor Basil Rajapaksa held talks with top Indian leaders in New Delhi Sunday and assured them that innocent Tamils will not be harmed.