Tamil Nadu   

Jayalalithaa has no locus standi to demand resignation: Karunanidhi

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Saturday said though general secretary of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Jayalalithaa had accused the State Government and the Centre of being indifferent to the reservation issue, people belonging to the Backward Classes and the Scheduled Castes were aware that she was doing so only to "hoodwink" the public.

Responding to Ms. Jayalalithaa's demand that he should quit his post in the wake of the Supreme Court's judgment on the Ninth Schedule, the Chief Minister said in a statement here that her outbursts were totally unwarranted.

Strongly defended

Tamil Nadu's case was strongly defended in the apex court by an eminent counsel, he said, adding that Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal had also made it clear that the Bench was not going to decide the validity of the inclusion of individual laws and it was concerned only with issues of Ninth Schedule under Article 31-B.

The Supreme Court, in its judgment on Friday, had also held that all such laws included in the Ninth Schedule [after April 24, 1973] would be examined separately by a three-judge Bench, he said, adding that only on that basis he had stated that the Government would wait till then.

Ms. Jayalalithaa had no locus standi to demand his resignation, as the country had not forgotten that she had failed to fulfil her moral responsibility of quitting her post even after the Supreme Court and the High Court gave verdicts against her during her tenure as Chief Minister, Mr. Karunanidhi said.

The AIADMK opposed the confidence motion based on the Mandal Commission recommendations moved by the then Prime Minister V.P. Singh in 1990, he recalled. In the same year, she also gave an interview in support of adopting an economic criterion for reservation and opposing the caste-based quota system, he said.

Mr. Karunanidhi also referred to his letters to the Prime Minister, chairperson of the UPA and Chief Ministers of all States in October last year stressing the need for safeguarding the interest of the BCs, SCs and STs.

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