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No compromise on deleting Article 356, says Karunanidhi

The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will not compromise on its demands for deletion of Article 356 from the Constitution, ensuring state autonomy and more powers to the state governments, under any circumstance, DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has asserted.

Addressing a massive public meeting in Tiruchirappalli on Thursday night, he said his party would fight to get the three demands fulfilled.

He said Article 356 had been used 97 times so far against various state governments. The BJP-led coalition at the Centre attempted to invoke the Article against the Bihar government, but it was prevented in time, he added.

No state government should be toppled unless it was found involved in anti-national activities, he said. The Inter-State Council, which was kept in abeyance till 1996, was activated when V P Singh became the prime minister and was again sidelined during the Narasimha Rao regime. It was, however, again activated during the United Front regime, he recalled.

Refuting the reported remark of former Union home minister Indrajit Gupta that no chief minister had made any demand for deletion of the Article, Karunanidhi said he himself had made a plea, during the inter-state chief ministers' conference on October 15, 1996, at New Delhi, that it should be deleted from the Constitution.

Karunanidhi ruled out the possibility of having an alliance with the BJP in future. There was a lot of difference between the DMK maintaining good relationship with the BJP-led government at the Centre for speedy implementation of the centrally sponsored projects in Tamil Nadu and having an alliance with the BJP, he added.

Unless the BJP declared that it was a secular party, the DMK could not think of having any ties with it, he said.

Karunanidhi said though there were no difference of opinion between the DMK and the BJP before the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the situation became different after that.

If the BJP gave an assurance that it would not attempt to built the Ram temple at the disputed site and would protect the interests of the minorities, then the DMK would consider the question of having an alliance with it, he added.

Expressing regret over Prime Minister A B Vajpayee's reported remark that he (Vajpayee) did not want any certificate from anybody, Karunanidhi said the prime minister should not speak like this.

He said the DMK would not sacrifice its identity when it joined any political front in future.

UNI

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