The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Normality was ensured on bandh day, says Karunanidhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Normality was ensured on bandh day, says Karunanidhi

Special Correspondent

“Even though Supreme Court’s orders on staying it were received late”

CHENNAI: Normality was ensured in the State though the Supreme Court’s orders on staying the October 1 bandh were received late the previous night, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi said on Wednesday.

In a statement, he said that though Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary received the court orders only at 10-30 p.m. on September 30, the State had made all arrangements possible and had even kept government offices open. The Secretariat functioned and he and other Ministers had attended office. All government offices across the State and some schools and colleges functioned.

All trains — without exception — were operated by the Railways. Air traffic was not affected in any manner. Buses were operated, and, as the day wore on, more and more buses plied on roads.

It was a fact that people and workers were not in a position to get the news of the Supreme Court stay. If those who raised questions against the Tamil Nadu Government took these facts into consideration, they would realise that there was no scope for any contempt.

Quoting extensively from The Hindu editorial, ‘Constitutionally off-track,’ that appeared on Wednesday, and the reports from other media, he said that these formed part of the criticism of the observations of the Supreme Court. (A Supreme Court judge on Monday orally observed that if it was found that the DMK government had not implemented the September 30 orders to stop Monday’s bandh, the court would “recommend” its dismissal to the President of India.) Mr. Karunanidhi said that only politicians were prevented from making comments and statements similar to the opinions aired in the media.

Hence, he was also not making any comment on this. But he had the responsibility to explain to the people who had raised questions on the bandh. Responding to Bharatiya Janata Party State president L. Ganesan’s statement that the DMK would be the BJP’s ideological enemy from now on, he said this should be considered as a “good character certificate” the BJP had given to the DMK. This would also help in realising in which direction the BJP was headed.

On the charge of DMK men physically attacking its rivals, Mr. Karunanidhi asked if it was right for those who nurtured the VHP and the RSS to let loose an orgy of violence across the country in the name of Babri Masjid to air their opinion on what constituted violence.

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