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Special court: Karnataka should go ahead, says Swamy

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE DEC. 1. The president of the Janata Party and former Union Minister, Subramanian Swamy, told newsmen here that the Karnataka Government should go ahead with the establishment of a special court to try the disproportionate assets cases against Ms. Jayalalithaa and refrain from seeking a review of the Supreme Court directive.

He was commenting on the reported hesitancy of the Karnataka Government in establishing the special court, more so, in the light of the differences between the two States on the Cauvery waters issue.

Dr. Swamy said that should there be any opposition from any quarter, the S.M. Krishna Government should take appropriate steps to maintain law and order. "The Government should be determined in complying with the directive of the apex court. If the Government is not interested in taking the necessary steps then it should rather resign and go," he said.

Asked whether the judgment in the TANSI case was a failure for him, Dr. Swamy said the Supreme Court had given a "harsh indictment" to Ms. Jayalalithaa and had even said that she should seek "atonement."

Dr. Swamy, however, commended Ms. Jayalalithaa's action in arresting what he called "anti-national" leaders in Tamil Nadu under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and said they were pro-LTTE. "Ms. Jayalalithaa has effectively used POTA and most of the LTTE activists and sympathisers were now in Karnataka. Only in some States like Orissa the provisions under POTA have been misused. There is no misuse of POTA in Tamil Nadu and the Chief Minister has done the right thing."

Referring to the proposed Hindu Viraat Sammelan by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other organisations of the Sangh Parivar in Bangalore, he said the VHP was primarily anti-Muslim and not in favour of Hindutva. "Having failed in Ayodhya, they have started coming to Bangalore and down south. If it is really in favour of Hindutva, then the VHP should launch protests in Tibet, seeking the liberation of Kailash-Manasarovar. The Karnataka Chief Minister should put down protests and book the people concerned under POTA."On the stamp paper scam, Dr. Swamy said over Rs. 1 lakh crores had been siphoned off by the perpetrators. It was rather strange that the Congress Governments in Karnataka and Maharashtra were opposing an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

With the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, not ruling out a "foreign hand" in the scam, it was all the more necessary for all the States concerned to hand over the investigations to the CBI. "The ISI is involved in the counterfeiting of currency apparently to fund its operations here," he said.

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