M A I N   N E W S

DMK pulls out of NDA government

Chennai, December 20
Capping two years of strained ties with the BJP, the DMK today pulled out its two ministers from the Vajpayee government and withdrew from the NDA but said it would give issue-based support to the Central coalition.

“We are no longer a constituent of the NDA,” DMK chief M. Karunanidhi announced after a meeting of the party’s high power committee here this morning.

He said the DMK, which had 11 members in the Lok Sabha, would offer issue-based support to the Vajpayee government.

Mr Karunanidhi said there was no question of reconsidering the decision.

Reacting to the decision, the BJP said the DMK was a responsible constitutent of the NDA and it would try to sort out the problems.

Asserting that there is no threat to the NDA government BJP General Secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the decision would in no way affect the relationship between the BJP and the DMK.

Asked by reporters whether DMK’s support hereafter would be like the one being extended by the TDP, Mr Karunanidhi said “I leave it to your inference”.

Charging the Vajpayee government with deviating from the NDA agenda of national governance, he cited the “fluctuating” stand of the BJP on Ayodhya issue and Mr Vajpayee’s recent “change of statements” on the rights of government employees to go on strike.

Though the decision was apparently provoked by BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu’s remarks that DMK’s agitation on Monday on the POTA issue was against the coalition tradition, relations between the two parties had strained ever since Karunanidhi’s arrest by the AIADMK government in the summer of 2001 and subsequent developments.

A resolution adopted at the meeting said though Naidu’s statement terming as unhealthy politics DMK’s call for an agitation by staying in the ministry could be “defeated” by citing precedents, the party did not want to cause any “hindrance” to the “healthy politics” of the BJP and has decided to withdraw its ministers.

Attacking the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP, the resolution said the statement of one of its general secretaries’ undermined DMK’s picketing programme while another general secretary said that the party would maintain equal distance from the DMK and the AIADMK. The view was endorsed by one of the BJP ministers from Tamil Nadu, it said.

Mr Karunanidhi said the decision had been taken considering the political situation in Tamil Nadu.

Asked whether the decision would be a forerunner for the party’s alliance with the Congress for next Lok Sabha poll, he said “at present, we are aloof. The decision on alliance will be taken at election time”.

Asked whether the DMK would reconsider its decision if the BJP requested it to do so, Mr Karunanidhi said “There is no scope for reconciliation. We will not reconsider it”.

Mr Karunanidhi said the party was of the view that POTA should be repealed and thrown into the dust bin “lock, stock and barrel”. — PTI