Front scales down pro-DMK rhetoric

To make matters worse for the party, its alliance partner Tamil Maanila Congress8217;s TMC supremo GK Moopanar was busy meeting Congress leaders Sitaram Kesri and Pranab Mukherjee to decide his party8217;s strategy in the aftermath of the tabling of the controversial Jain Commission report.

At the 75-minute meeting of the UF core committee, Karunanidhi circulated some papers which sought to prove the Congress8217; complicity in the events leading to Rajiv8217;s assassination.

Prime Minister IK Gujral and Communist Party of India-Marxist CPM general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet briefed the meeting about their talks with Congress leaders, including Sitaram Kesri.

UF leaders were uncharacteristically reluctant to dwell on the DMK8217;s future. The usual effusive remarks of 8220;We are firmly behind the party8221; and 8220;the UF remains united8221; were surely missing. Even the Front8217;s convenor N Chandrababu Naidu was remarkably reticent. He refused to respond to any queries posed by the media on this count.

8220;There is no reluctance to reiterate support to the DMK. But I don8217;t want to comment any more,8221; Naidu said, before flying back to Hyderabad tonight.

A senior leader explained later that the UF had decided not to do anything that would provoke the Congress into taking a drastic step. 8220;There is a conscious attempt at de-escalation of tension and our approach is to lower the temperature,8221; he quipped.

Senior UF leaders attributed the cautious response to the Congress8217; moves to the fact that 8220;there is no formal demand as yet from the Congress for the DMK8217;s ouster8221;.

All that UF spokesman S Jaipal Reddy was willing to say was that the standing committee had called upon the Centre to place the Jain Commission report along with all relevant documents and the Action Taken Report on the very first day in Parliament. He claimed that the meeting did not discuss the Congress8217; demand for the DMK8217;s ouster.

When pressed further, he said that there was 8220;no threat of any kind to the UF Government8221;.

In an obvious attempt to divert the attention of Parliament from the Jain Commission report, the core group decided to ask its members to press for a discussion on the recent events in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP had formed its Government in a 8220;brazen manner8221; and had now let loose a reign of terror against Samajwadi Party activists.