On day one, Lanka Tamil relief fund receives Rs 26 lakh

Their plight without food, medicines and other relief materials had snowballed into a major issue with DMK MPs putting in their post-dated papers with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and setting a deadline for the UPA Government to address the issue.

Donations came in from many Central and state ministers and members of both Houses of Parliament as well as from other sources like Chief Minister’s personal staff, industrialists and trade unions. Karunanidhi launched the fund with a contribution of Rs 10 lakh, while his daffedar K Ezhumalai donated Rs 1,000 from his salary towards the fund.

Karunanidhi’s son and state Local Administration Minister M K Stalin, senior Union Ministers, T R Baalu and A Raja, Rajya Sabha member and Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi and lyricist Vairamuthu were among those who made their contributions to the fund on Tuesday.

The relief fund would collect relief materials through district collectors across the state, and would send them to Sri Lanka through the International Red Cross or the United Nations, said Karunanidhi, adding that it was India’s duty to help the Lankan Tamils.

The Centre agreed to send 800 tonnes of relief materials to Lanka — one of the demands raised by a multi-party meeting on the issue — which, along with the Lankan assurance that innocent Tamils will not be harmed, bailed out the DMK after its tough posturing.

However, this softening has given rise to criticisms that the entire crisis was a political ploy to divert public attention from local problems like power crisis and price rise, and to ensure that the issue will not be blown into an anti-Government platform as it threatened to at one point.

Former DPA partner CPI and ex-NDA partner BJP have come out against the DMK on the issue, charging that nothing substantial has emerged from the meeting between Chief Minister and the External Affairs Minister. The issue was reduced to the ‘post-dated’ resignations by DMK members, alleged leaders of the party, adding that this will not have any impact on the suffering undergone by innocent Tamils in Lanka.