Anti-LTTE or pro-Tamil? In a bind, Karunanidhi explains

In an obvious bid to allay the impression that he was ‘anti-Tamil’, Karunanidhi issued a statement on Thursday night that he would ‘‘urge’’ the Centre to take steps to end the ethnic strife. The opposition AIADMK, he said, was intent on discrediting him in the eyes of the Tamil community. ‘‘A private television channel close to the AIADMK had been talking about handbills distributed against me,’’ he said but did not give details of the ‘propaganda’.

Karunanidhi’s latest stand is being seen as a reaction to allegations in the website that his government was supporting the Karuna faction, the renegade group that split from the LTTE two years ago. According to the rather strongly-worded accusation, Paranthan Rajan, the leader of a group called Eelam National Democratic Liberation Front (ENDLF), and a Col Karuna backer, was luring Tamil refugees in the Mandapam camp near Rameswaram to join the Karuna group against the LTTE.

The website adds that Rajan who had been arrested during the previous Jayalalithaa regime, and subsequently released and ordered to leave the country, returned to India during the Assembly elections and stayed in Bangalore. With DMK in power, he was in the process of recruiting the Tamil refugees, it said.

Karunanidhi, who had always had to ward off charges that he was an LTTE supporter, is now being forced to prove his pro-Tamil sentiment. His party had been accused of a ‘‘covert role’’ in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. In early 1991, barely two years after his party came to power, his government was dismissed after it was accused of encouraging LTTE activities in Tamil Nadu.

What had also angered the Tigers and its supporters is the reference to the LTTE as a ‘foreign terrorist group’ in a memorandum recently submitted by DMK MPs to the Prime Minister seeking enhanced security for Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran. It alleged that the Minister faced threat from MDMK leader Vaiko, ‘‘who had connections with a foreign terrorist group’’. In 1993, Vaiko was expelled from the DMK on the charge that he was conspiring to eliminate Karunanidhi with the LTTE’s help.

The DMK has always been consistent in its stand that the Sri Lankan Tamil issue should be settled amicably. And ‘‘violence should not be allowed to rear its head, be it in Sri Lanka or in Tamil Nadu,’’ Karunanidhi pointed out in his statement on Thursday. ‘‘Our approach is rooted in Tamil ethnic sentiment and humanitarian principles. We are anguished to see Tamils fleeing to Tamil Nadu as refugees, and we are extending all help to them,’’ he said, adding that his party had always been of the view that ‘‘peace talks should result in a positive breakthrough’’.