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Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI, November 25: The Bharatiya Janata Party today declared that it was not backing the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, which had been castigated by the Jain Commission probing the Rajiv Gandhi assassination, but only wanted the panel to withdraw the “unjust, uncalled for and provocative” remarks made in its interim report against the Tamil community.
Party general secretary Venkaiah Naidu told media persons in Chennai on Tuesday, that the BJP had no soft corner for the DMK. However, in defence of the DMK, he asked, “If DMK should be blamed for its support to the LTTE, what about the Congress links with the LTTE?”
Referring to dubbing of the DMK by the Congress as anti-national, he sought to know if any one could be dubbed as anti-national for sympathising with the LTTE.
Questioned further on BJP’s sudden leaning towards the DMK, Naidu said, “earlier you (media) said the BJP was moving closer to the AIADMK, now you say we are joining hands with the DMK. We support or oppose parties on the basis of issues”.
Naidu said that the United Front constituents including the Tamil Manila Congress, Communist Party Marxist and Samajwadi Party were willing to sacrifice the DMK to save the government, but a firm stand taken by former Prime Ministers V P Singh and H D Deve Gowda “saved the day”. He questioned the “silent sympathy” of the Congress for Union Minister P Chidambaram.
