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DMK has to respond to the danger posed by Jayalalitha to democracy: Karunanidhi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has released a set of demands which had been placed by AIADMK General Secretary J Jayalalitha before the Vajpayee government, consisting mainly of reinstatement of top officials suspended on corruption charges and transfer of scores of officials in the Union surface transport, company affairs and income-tax departments.

Karunanidhi indicated to newspersons that he managed to get a copy containing Jayalalitha's demands, the same way he had obtained the C J R Paul Commission's report on the mysterious death of Tiruchendur Murugan temple executive officer Subramania Pillai in 1982 during the M G Ramachandran regime.

Karunanidhi said part of the demands was written in hand and the rest typed. Jayalalitha had also sought the revocation of the suspension of IAS officials V Haribhaskar and C Ramachandran, the state chief secretary and industries secretary during her tenure as chief minister.

He said she also wanted the revocation of the suspension of Bhupathy as Neyveli Lignite Corporation chairman and managing director and the income-tax department to accept his tax returns.

Criticising the change in the stand of the Left parties, Karunanidhi said only three days ago, his West Bengal counterpart Jyoti Basu had said that the DMK and TMC were in the Third Front and the CPI-M would take a decision after consulting them.

CPI-M General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet also endorsed Basu's statement. But they had not kept their word, he regretted.

Replying to a question whether the strained relations with the Left parties at the national level would reflect on the alliance at the state level, he said he wanted the alliance to continue. But anything on this would be known only after some time.

Karunanidhi said the DMK had to respond to the danger posed by Jayalalitha to democracy, federalism and judicial process and also avert immediate prospects of a general election.

Stating that Jayalaitha was bent upon forcing her single point agenda of getting the DMK government dismissed, he said the day was not far off when those parties which were now being lured by her would realise their folly.

He said he was not bothered about the threat of his government's dismissal as the party had experienced that twice -- once during the Emergency for protecting Jayaprakash Narayan and then in January 1991 for supporting the cause of the Sri Lankan Tamils.

He said he held the view that an elected government should be allowed to complete its full five year term and this would apply to the Vajpayee government also.

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:
DMK for BJP, TMC options still open

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