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Vazhapadi Ramamurthy threatens agitation if TN government is not sacked

Union Petroleum Minister and Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress president Vazhapadi K Rmamurthy today threatened to launch an agitation if the Centre failed to dismiss the Karunanidhi government in Tamil Nadu.

Addressing newspersons after the TRC's first state executive meeting in Madras, he said the meeting had passed a resolution to this effect. Without setting any timeframe, he said the Centre should sack the DMK regime invoking Article 356 of the Constitution or by any other means.

Drawing a parallel between 1991 and the present situation, he said the then Karunanidhi government was dismissed for aiding and abetting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Now, the law and order situation had deteriorated, with serial blasts rocking the state and fundamentalism and terrorism on the increase, he claimed.

Ramamurthy said under these circumstances, the Centre could not watch the developments as a mere spectator.

On a similar demand by some of the alliance partners in the central government for the dismissal of the Bihar and West Bengal governments, he said the allies in the respective states would take care of that.

Referring to the Coimbatore serial blasts, he expressed apprehensions over the impartiality of the P R Gokulakrishnan commission of inquiry constituted by the state government, and demanded that the probe be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Ramamurthy said the final report of the Jain Commission, which probed the conspiracy aspect of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, would be tabled in the forthcoming session of Parliament.

On Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy walking out of the BJP front, he said it would not have any repercussions on the All India Anna DMK-led front in Tamil Nadu, of which the TRC and the Janata Party were constituents.

Asked about Dr Swamy's proposed secular front, he said the AIADMK front and its constituents need not necessarily follow in his footsteps. Moreover, they were yet to receive any information in this regard, he added.

Justifying the appointment of 33 AIADMK advocates as central government standing counsels, he said it was a routine matter done by any new government. He denied that these appointments were made to help AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalitha, who was facing corruption charges.

Referring to the reports about the merger of the Tamil Maanila Congress with the Congress, he said it would never happen. The TMC was yet to recover from its defeat in the recent Lok Sabha poll, he added.

UNI

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