ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Karunanidhi has bought his peace with RSS, charges Swamy

Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy on Sunday alleged that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi had struck a deal with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to save his government from dismissal by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government at the Centre.

Talking to newsmen in Madras, he claimed that the BJP leaders in the government have been directed by the RSS to "go easy" on the DMK government in the state, after Karunanidhi extended the "olive branch" to the Hindu Munnani. Thus, the BJP government was determined not to invoke Article 356 of the Constitution to dismiss the Karunanidhi government, he added.

To quote an instance, he said the state government had not brought to book Munnani leader Ramagopalan for his fascist utterances that Hindus should buy only from shops owned by Hindus.

"We hoped that the BJP government would take steps to dismiss the DMK government after the election. But on the contrary, there seems to be a growing closeness between the DMK and the BJP", he said.

He would, however, launch a month-long campaign throughout the state if the government was not dismissed by July 15, and address public meetings in all the district headquarters to create awareness among the people as to why this government should be dismissed.

Dr Swamy said the Janata Party would support the agitation proposed to be launched by Union minister and Tamizhaga Rajiv Congress leader Vazhapadi K Ramamurthy if the Centre did not invoke Article 356 against the DMK government.

Dr Swamy said Ramagopalan's reported directive to Hindus was blatantly against the law and he should have been arrested under the National Security Act.

But Karunanidhi, instead of initiating action against him, had invited him to his house and supported Ramagopalan's view, he charged.

He said he had written to Prime Minister A B Vajpayee on raising the water level of Periyar dam to 152 ft from the present 136 ft, and if he failed to act on this, he would file a public interest litigation in the Supreme Court soon.

Earlier, the party's executive which met in Madras on Sunday morning, adopted a resolution demanding that the Vajpayee government remove Ram Jethmalani and Ramakrishna Hegde from the Union Cabinet.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report