The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Rule of law will be upheld: Karunanidhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 07, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rule of law will be upheld: Karunanidhi

Special Correspondent

Says no witch-hunt if DMK comes to power

BACKING DPA: Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh and DMK president M. Karunanidhi at an election meeting at Chinthadripet in Chennai on Saturday. Raj Babbar, Jan Morcha president (left), is also seen. — Photo : M. Vedhan

CHENNAI: Promising that the rule of law will be upheld at all times, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi on Saturday said there would be no witch-hunt if his party came to power.

Winding up his election campaign at Chinthadripet, Mr. Karunanidhi said Periyar (E.V. Ramasamy Naicker) and Anna (C.N. Annadurai) had taught him to focus on larger issues concerning people and not pick on a few individuals.

Their training made him look at issues of the poor and the oppressed classes, he said and added that he could face the wrath of others but the only thing that he found difficult to tackle was treachery.

Mr. Karunanidhi, who began his campaign early morning at Royapuram, made a whirlwind tour of most of the city constituencies, touching Harbour, Perambur, Park Town, Egmore, Anna Nagar, Thousand Lights, T.Nagar and Triplicane before attending the last rally at his own constituency, Chepauk.

Mr. Karunanidhi said many of the slum board tenements that he had built for the poor dwellers of the city were in a bad shape because of neglect over the years.

He would construct new tenements for these urban poor, Mr. Karunanidhi said and added that the administration was also in similar condition and it needed major improvements.

The DMK chief elaborated on Dharmapuri bus burning incident, Supreme Court observations in the TANSI land deal case and Goondas Act against councillor Dhanasekharan, mass dismissal of employees, stampede at MGR Nagar school, his arrest and manhandling of the late Union Minister Murasoli Maran and Union Minister T.R. Baalu, and said these acts proved that the AIADMK government was autocratic and it should be defeated.

Former Prime Minister V.P. Singh made a strong pitch to vote for his old friend Mr. Karunanidhi, saying that he and the DMK stood for social justice, preserving the self respect of the poor, development of all people and implementation in letter and in spirit of all recommendations made in the Mandal Commission report.

Mr. Singh said if the DMK and its allies won in Tamil Nadu, there would be greater "harmony between the Centre and the State."

Mr. Singh said it was a shame that the Seerani Arangam on the Marina was pulled down and wanted it to be rebuilt.

"I am sad and shocked that something given to the people of Tamil Nadu to voice their feelings has been demolished," he said. (Mr. Karunanidhi promised to rebuild this and also reinstall the Kannagi statue on the Marina.)

Recalling his long association with Mr. Karunanidhi, he said Mr. Karunanidhi would deliver on his promises.

He told the people that it was "better to have bread in your hand than eat ice cream in your dreams."

Jan Morcha president Raj Babbar said the Jayalalithaa government had cheated people and proved to be anti-minority. He appealed to the people to vote for the DMK, which had always taken up issues of the poor and the downtrodden.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail