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Tuesday, Nov 18, 2008
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Major parties stay away from meeting called by CPI

Special Correspondent

It has called for a hartal on November 25

— Photo: S. S. Kumar

SHARING A POINT: D. Pandian, state secretary of CPI (left), with Tamil Nationalist Movement leader P.Nedumaran and NCP leader Tindivanam Ramamurthy (second from right), at the all- party meeting on Sri Lankan Tamils issue, in Chennai on Monday. R. Nallakannu, senior CPI leader, is in the picture.

CHENNAI: The all-party meeting convened by the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Monday called for a hartal on November 25 in Tamil Nadu to urge the Centre to intervene and ensure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

All the major parties including the DMK, AIADMK, Congress, CPI(M), DMDK and Viduthalai Chiruthaikal Katchi stayed away from the meeting.

The CPI(M) had told the CPI leadership that it did not approve of the party’s criticism that sending relief materials to the Tamils in Sri Lanka was nothing but a farce.

CPI State secretary D. Pandian, however, sought to play down their absence saying that these parties had conveyed their inability to attend the meeting as they were preoccupied with other commitments. “All of them agree with our demand for India’s intervention to stop the war,” he added and pointed to Chief Minister M.Karunanidhi’s stand that nothing short of a ceasefire would satisfy him.

Mr. Pandian called upon educational institutions, transport and railway employees and others to participate in the hartal.

Request to people

“We request the people to rearrange their travel plans. We will observe the protest with absolute discipline. Our volunteers would see to it that no damage is done to public properties on the day of hartal,” he said.

Asked whether the party would be in a position to organise the hartal successfully without the participation of major political parties, he said, “No one can reject the call to stop the killing of innocent Tamils.”

When told about the Supreme Court direction against such protests, he said, “We are ready to face the consequences.”

Later, he explained that “we are only asking people to abstain from work and we are not going to prevent anyone from doing their work.”

Mr. Pandian said if the Centre failed to act in one week after the hartal, all the political parties would meet once again to chalk out the next course of action.

No difference of opinion

Denying that there were differences of opinion among the political parties on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, he said “actually all the parties are vying with each other to help the Tamils in Sri Lanka.”

He shot down a proposal to seek the help of the United Nations or the International Committee of Red Cross Society to help the Sri Lankan Tamils.

“Ceasefire first”

“First we need a ceasefire. All other issues could be discussed later,” he said.

The Pattali Makkal Katchi and the MDMK are some of the parties that attended the meeting.

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