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It's political vendetta, says Vaiko

By Our Staff Reporter

KANCHEEPURAM SEPT. 23. The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa's letter to the Prime Minister, A.B. Vajpayee, urging him to remove the Union Minister and MDMK treasurer, M. Kannappan, from the Union Cabinet, and announcing that ``suitable action'' would be taken against him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, is nothing but political vendetta, the party general secretary, Vaiko, said today.

Talking to presspersons at the POTA court campus in Poonamalle, near Chennai, Mr. Vaiko said the speeches made by Mr. Kannappan after releasing the book, Thyaga Neruppil Vaiko, written by Diwan, in Chennai on September 16, did not attract the provisions of the POTA. Mr. Kannappan had narrated only the MDMK's approach on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and he did not utter anything against the public order. Nor did he say anything to spoil the tranquillity of the State or sovereignty of India.

Mr. Vaiko said he or Mr. Kannappan never spoke supporting the activities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Tamil Nadu or in any part of India.

``When I was arrested under the POTA last year for my speech at the Tirumangalam (near Madurai) public meeting, Mr. Kannappan condemned it, saying the MDMK had extended only moral support to the LTTE for the prime reason that it was fighting for the rights of the Tamils in the island. Immediately, the Chief Minister wrote a letter to the Centre on August 2, 2002 for taking action against Mr. Kannappan. But the Attorney-General, Soli Sorabjee, told the Centre that there was nothing wrong in Mr. Kannappan's speech. Since then, Mr. Kannappan did not speak anything for more than a year and spoke only on September 16 at the book release function,'' Mr. Vaiko said.

The Chief Minister was agitated over the charges made by Mr. Kannappan at the function that the State Government did not invite him for the inauguration of a scheme using the subsidy provided by the Centre.

To another question, Mr. Vaiko said ``whenever we talk about the Sri Lankan Tamils issue or the ethnic problem in the island nation, the role of the LTTE cannot be ignored as it represented the Tamils. All the nations have expressed support to the peace talks between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Government in the last 17 months.''

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