CHENNAI : Cranking up pressure on the Centre, DMK chief M Karunanidhi today threatened to snap ties with the ruling alliance if it failed to move amendments to the US- sponsored resolution at the UNHRC for an international probe and time-bound action against those found guilty of war crimes in Sri Lanka.
Close on the heels of his earlier warning of pulling out DMK ministers from the Government, Karunanidhi shot off letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, saying he feels “let down” by the “lukewarm” response of the government.
“If our demands are not met, it is doubtful whether our ties with the alliance (UPA) will continue…It won’t continue is sure,” Karunanidhi told reporters here.
Addressing a hurriedly convened press meet here, the 88-year-old leader said irrespective of the US accepting India’s amendments or not, New Delhi should move them at the UN human rights body in Geneva.
The US-sponsored motion puts Sri Lanka on the mat over alleged war crimes and human rights violations against Tamil civilians during the last phase of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The DMK wants the resolution to be stronger by incorporating the demand for an international probe and time-bound action against those found guilty of war crimes in the island nation.
The UN body had adopted a similar US-backed resolution last year with the support of India which asked Colombo to make rapid progress on reconciliation with the ethnic Tamils.
To a question, Karunanidhi said none from the Centre had contacted him after he had warned of his party quitting the government.
DMK, an ally of UPA since 2004, has 18 members in the Lok Sabha with one cabinet minister and four junior ministers.
Seeking to reach out to the DMK, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said India should support the US resolution against Lanka if it called for an independent and reliable probe into the alleged war crimes in the island nation in 2009
“My sentiments, your sentiments, and the sentiments of all Tamils is that if the resolution contains such a demand, India should support and vote in favour of it,” Chidambaram said, hoping there would be ‘good news’ and people should wait till March 22 (when the vote is to take place in UNHRC).
“There will be good news, good news. Maintain patience till then. I am confident and I am giving you this positive feeling, continue spreading this among all till March 22,” he said at a meeting organised by local Congress in Karaikudi in his native Sivaganga district late last night.
In identical letters to Singh and Sonia Gandhi faxed last night, the DMK chief insisted that the government should bring in amendments to declare that “genocide and war crimes had been committed and inflicted on Eelam Tamils by Sri Lankan Army and the Administrators” and seek a credible and independent international commission to probe human rights violations.
“I am writing this letter with immense mental agony and feeling of having been let down by the Government of India,” he said and hoped the Centre would take immediate steps to assuage the feelings of entire Tamil community by getting the amendments incorporated in the resolution.
Karunanidhi said he was constrained to write to them in view of the “volatile situation” prevailing in the state.
He said there was a feeling of “injustice” among the Tamils in the context of the “lukewarm response of the Government of India to the entreaties made by the various sections of Tamil community in general and students community in particular across the state.”
With DMK upping the ante, the government, which has been non-committal on its stand, sought to placate its regional ally with Minister of State in the PMO V Narayanasamy on Saturday saying a final decision on the US resolution will be taken keeping in mind the emotions of people of Tamil Nadu.
DMK has been focussing on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue ever since it revived last year the Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO), floated by Karunanidhi in the 1980s, and has stepped up pressure on the Centre to act against Sri Lanka.
The Lankan Tamils issue was also vociferously raised in Parliament last week by MPs from Tamil Nadu who demanded that India should support the US resolution at the UNHRC. (AGENCIES)
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