Now, she targets SUN

NEW DELHI, April 21: The AIADMK continued to put pressure on the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government by coming out with a fresh demand today -- ...

NEW DELHI, April 21: The AIADMK continued to put pressure on the Atal Behari Vajpayee Government by coming out with a fresh demand today 8212; this time seeking action against SUN TV, which is owned by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi8217;s nephew and former Union Minister Murasoli Maran8217;s family.

Having tasted blood by forcing the Vajpayee Government to drop Buta Singh from for his alleged involvement in the JMM bribery case, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha rushed a team of 15 party MPs with a memorandum listing seven allegations against SUN TV.

Led by former Union Minister S R Muthiah, who is also the AIADMK8217;s Parliamentary Party leader, the delegation met Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj this afternoon to submit the memorandum, which has been signed by 25 AIADMK MPs, hailing both from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. quot;The Minister has assured us that she would look into these allegations,quot; Muthiah told reporters later in the day.

Declining to reveal contents of the memorandum,Muthiah said SUN TV was quot;sabotagingquot; the functioning of Doordarshan, particularly in Chennai, through telephone and transmission network.

The AIADMK8217;s latest demand is part of the party8217;s wider strategy to seek the dismissal of the Karunanidhi Government. Its MPs are also planning to meet President K R Narayanan with their demand. quot;We may meet him to apprise him of the situation prevailing in Tamil Nadu,quot; Muthiah pointed out.

quot;We8217;ll not rest till we have succeeded in getting the state government sacked, but we are not setting any deadlinequot; he said, adding, quot;Even Union Home Minister L K Advani has said that ISI was operating from Tamil Nadu, and not from Jammu and Kashmir or Punjab.quot; He reiterated his party8217;s demand for a second fact-finding team to be sent by the Union Home Ministry. quot;As soon as Special Secretary Ashok Kumar, who was earlier sent by the Ministry to assess the law and order situation in the state, set his foot down from the aircraft, he started making statements that everything was finethere. How can we accept the veracity of his report?quot; he asked.

If Vajpayee was hoping that Buta Singh8217;s removal from the cabinet would resolve the crisis facing his Government, the AIADMK8217;s latest demand is likely to subject the 18-party coalition to a fresh bout of tension.

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With the tensions among the partners continuing to simmer, senior leaders of two major partners of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition have suggested formation of a coordination committee to sort out irritants among constituents of the combine in the wake of Jayalalitha episode.

Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik and Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar told reporters separately that there was an urgent need to evolve such a mechanism to iron out differences that might crop up in the coalition.

Both Union Ministers rejected suggestions that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was acting under pressure from Jayalalitha in removing Buta Singh and maintained that the yardstick of not retaining chargesheeted ministers wasbeing applied uniformly.

They said it was not fair on the part of the coalition partners to air their grievances publicly as it impeded smooth functioning of the coalition government. Any problem among the partners should be resolved within the forum, they said. Meanwhile, Urban Affairs Minister Ram Jethmalani said he had replied to the prime minister on the allegations levelled by Jayalalitha in her letter on Saturday.