Karunanidhi criticises Jayalalithaa for her remarks on PM's statement

Joining issue with his arch-rival and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, DMK president M Karunanidhi today slammed her for terming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement on a US-sponsored resolution for alleged war crimes against Sri Lanka as "futile" and describing his party's activities on the issue as "drama".

He also squarely blamed the chief minister for the months-long impasse on the Kudankulam nuclear power plant.

Quoting the Prime Minister, Karunanidhi, whose DMK is a key ally of the ruling UPA, said Singh had announced India was inclined to vote in favour of the resolution in the UNHCR and that India's objective was to ensure future for Tamils marked by self-respect, dignity and equality.

"What is regrettable about it," he said in a statement here referring to her remarks made last night.

Jayalalithaa had described the Prime Minister's statement to the Lok Sabha as "non-committal and futile," holding it made no mention of the human rights violations during the conflict in the island nation.

He also hit out at her for saying he had enacted a drama in 2009 when he went on a fast demanding ceasefire during the peak of the conflict between the Sri Lankan Army and LTTE as well as the party's announcement to stage a fast on March 22 and convening the high level committee on March 20 to press Centre to vote in favour of the resolution.

"What did she do other than writing letters to Prime Minister while I am prepared to fast even at this age and prepared to pull out DMK ministers from Union Cabinet if India did not vote in favour of the resolution," the 88 year-old leader said.

In 2009, he had went on fast without informing anybody and after New Delhi was informed of it, then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had issued a statement saying the conflict had ended and Colombo was taking efforts to rescue trapped civilians, Karunanidhi said.

"Therefore, I recalled my fast by afternoon (of the same day). But she had said civilian casualty was common in a war," he said.

On the KNPP issue, he said that it was the Jayalalithaa-led cabinet which had passed a resolution in September 2011 calling for halting of work till the people's fears were allayed. This had resulted in delay in power production besides economic losses he said, adding, she was "solely responsible" for this.

Karunanidhi charged her with enacting a drama on this issue, especially after having allocated Rs500 crore special package for the locality.