Karunanidhi threatens pullout over Tamils in SL issue

BROTHERS IN ARMS: Karunanidhi has his eyes on his electorate which feels strongly for the Sri Lankan Tamils

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Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi is stepping up pressure on the Centre to act tough on the Sri Lankan Government.

It is reliably learnt that the Lankan government has stepped up military offensive against LTTE in northern Lanka and claims that it is slowly wiping out LTTE strongholds.

Politicians in the southern Indian states are in an overdrive to prove who the real champion of their brethren in peril is.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, whose party also props up the UPA government at the Centre has voiced his apprehensions of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Repotedly, Karunanidhi has threatened to pull out of UPA government unless the Indian government takes a really tough stance on the action by Sri Lankan defence forces and government on the people of Tamil origin in the island nation.

The Tamil Nadu CM sounded out his warning at a public rally organized by the party he heads, DMK.

“If Sri Lanka refuses to listen to India's warnings and continues to kill Tamils, then we will have to consider whether we need the UPA government,” said Karunanidhi.

It's a political threat that few would take seriously, especially as his own state government's survival depends on the Congress.

But he had to sound off the Centre in public so as to be heard and noticed loud and clear above the other parties who are trying to ride on the LTTE-sympathy wave.

Parties like the CPI, PMK and MDMK have stepped up their protest against the Sri Lankan army’s advances and even Jayalalithaa who was once fiercely against the LTTE has joined the chorus.

Karunanidhi did not fail to deliver that one line meant to draw the masses’ attention.

“If the center does not support us in this cause for the Sri Lankan Tamils, we will also die and I have nothing else to say,” said Karunanidhi.

Latest reports had said that the Sri Lankan army is just two kilometers away from Kilinochi, which was once described as the capital of LTTE controlled areas in Sri Lanka.

The many voices in India may never be heard above the internal disorder by the Sri Lankan forces.

(With inputs from Meenakshi Mahadevan)