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Journalism of Courage
CHENNAI/BANGALORE, OCT 19: With Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi today strongly contesting AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s remark that Tamil Desiya Iyakkam leader P. Nedumaran had been chosen as an emissary to Veerappan by the Tamil Nadu government on its own, his Karnataka counterpart S.M. Krishna tried to downplay the controversy.
Krishna admitted that he had been consulted on the matter and that Karnataka had considered it prudent not to come in the way of any initiative taken by Tamil Nadu to end the Rajkumar kidnap crisis.
Earlier, Karunanidhi — obviously smarting at Sonia’s attempts to dissociate her party from the selection of a Tamil nationalist leader having links with the LTTE as a government emissary — told mediapersons: “When the news came from Veerappan asking for Nedumaran, Prof P. Kalyanai and Sukumaran as emissaries, I sent Nakkeeran associate editor A. Kamaraj to Bangalore to explain the situation.”
Krishna had given his consent to the choice of emissaries and even held discussions with Nedumaran, Karunanidhi said. “I don’t want to discuss the issue in detail since the release of Rajkumar is more important,” he added.
In a carefully worded statement released hours later, Krishna acknowledged: “In our anxiety to ensure the early and safe return of Rajkumar and another hostage, we considered it prudent not to come in the way of any initiative taken by the Tamil Nadu government in this regard.”
The Chief Minister added: “On a sensitive issue like the safe return of Rajkumar, I do not want to get bogged down by controversies by issuing statements and counter-statements as the principal aim of the two state governments is to ensure the safe release of the hostages.”
Krishna also claimed: “Right from the day when Rajkumar was abducted, we had made it clear that we are depending heavily on the Tamil Nadu government for the safe release of the hostages…We are convinced that Karunanidhi and his government are making sincere efforts and taking necessary steps to get the hostages released safely.”
