In a hard-hitting statement in Chennai, she said in order to protect the position of Mrs Gandhi, even Parliament had been adjourned, "without any qualms in a blatantly brazen manner, destroying a sacred convention built over decades.'' She appealed to the President to ensure that such happenings did not recur.

Sonia Resigns

Stating that the resignation of Mrs Gandhi and her "�usual spiel about sacrifice and nobility cut no ice,'' Miss Jayalalithaa said she had only tried to make a virtue out of a compelling necessity, which would have seen her disqualified.

She charged that a high drama of sacrifice had been enacted, knowing that an Ordinance merely to protect her position would draw severe flak and not pass muster.