Neither party nor govt will intervene, says Congress.
Former Tamil Nadu chief M Karunanidhi on Tuesday met a host of Congress leaders from Tamil Nadu but gave Congress president and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi the cold shoulder, amid tension between the two parties following DMK MP Kanimozhi’s arrest in the 2G spectrum scam.
Karunanidhi had directed his son, Stalin, to meet Kanimozhi on Tuesday. He met his stepsister in the court and talked to her for around 40 minutes. Karunanidhi met congress general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu, Ghulam Nabi Azad, who said: “Our leader, Sonia Gandhi, is concerned because Kanimozhi, a woman, is in jail and it is a matter of concern and the fact is that one cannot do anything.” The Congress said the party or the government was not going to intervene in the legal process.
The DMK has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha, providing stability to the Congress-led government. In Chennai, rival AIADMK leader and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said she would support the UPA government at the Centre if the Congress decided to snap ties with DMK.
However, the Congress ignored the offer. Azad told reporters: “All these will not affect the relationship between the Congress and the DMK and in future also, it will not have any effect whatsoever. Karunanidhi is a man of political standing and a man of political understanding. He knows well that the Supreme Court is monitoring and a special court is looking into it.
He also knows the opinion of the Government of India as it is not interfering in any case, including the (Suresh) Kalmadi case.”
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“I am happy Karunanidhi understands it all.... Congress has no role to play here,” Azad said. Later, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan met Karunanidhi.
“The DMK has said it will fight the case legally. I met him (Karunanidhi) as a courtesy,” she said. Home Minister P
Chidambaram and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office M Narayanasamy had also met Karunanidhi yesterday.
In spite of all the talks of friendship between the two allies, DMK MPs were privately bitter, One MP said the Thalaivar (Leader) had broken down and cried bitterly after meeting Kanimozhi. “It is now just a question of when and how we will pull out from this government. We are playing the waiting game.”
“Once A Raja opens his mounth, the Congress will not know where to hide. However, we will wait for the trial to start,” said another MP.