NEWS
VIEWS
INTERVIEWS
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
ISSUES '98
MANIFESTOS
OVERHEARD
POLLING BOOTH
INDIA SPEAKS!
YEH HAI INDIA
CHAT
ELECTIONS '96

Karunanidhi should be dismissed, says Jayalalitha

The Bharatiya Janata Party has a major problem on hand even before it assumes office at the Centre with its key ally, former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalitha, demanding the dismissal of the DMK government on the ground that it was "anti-national" and posed a serious threat to the unity and integrity of the country.

Addressing a crowded press conference in New Delhi, Jayalalitha asserted that her 18 MPs, whose help is crucial to the BJP government, would not join the government but lend unconditional support to it. "We have compelling reasons for not joining the government but I would not divulge it now," she said.

Demanding a white paper on the extremist activities in Tamil Nadu culminating in bomb blasts in Coimbatore, she said the state government should be directed to furnish all the records connected with the case and these should be made public.

Jayalaltiha said the DMK government should go not because it had lost the mandate to rule but because it was encouraging the activities of extremist and religious fundamentalists, and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi was violating the oath he had taken to preserve the Constitution.

Jayalalitha's demand is viewed in the context of the difficulty the BJP would face since its own governments in Rajasthan and Maharashtra have also fared badly in the recent election.

Jayalalitha, however, made it clear that she was not serving an ultimatum on the Vajpayee government to dismiss the DMK government.

The AIADMK has not stipulated any precondition for its support to the BJP she said, adding that her party was a pre-poll ally of the BJP.

Launching a blistering attack on the DMK government, Jayalalitha accused it of colluding with religious extremists and fundamentalist forces and said repeated warnings about the infiltration of Pakistan's ISI into the state was ignored.

The AIADMK leader said during her regime she had kept radical elements under check by putting them behind bars. Her government had also installed several checkposts on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border through which these elements entered the state.

She alleged that as soon the DMK government assumed office, the fundamentalist leaders were released and checkposts disbanded. This has led to a disastrous situation in Tamil Nadu and the people were panic-stricken. She said Karunanidhi had avoided a CBI inquiry into the Coimbatore bomb blasts that left nearly 80 people dead.

The AIADMK supremo said she had no intention to ask the BJP government to be formed at the Centre to drop cases of corruption filed against her in various courts.

She said these cases were filed by her political rivals, and expressed confidence that these would not stand the test of law and it was only a question of time before she was exonerated.

Asked whether the AIADMK has given up its Dravidian moorings by aligning with the BJP, she said the AIADMK's political philosophy was different from that of the BJP. ''But we came together for the election and people have voted for it,'' she added.

Asked whether she considered the BJP a communal party, Jayalalitha said the BJP has promised the nation that it will uphold secularism. She said she was confident that it would fulfill that promise.

UNI

RELATED REPORT:
BJP is keen, but Jayalalitha non-committal on joining Vajpayee government
Elections '98

Tell us what you think of this report