Karuna's TESO meet runs into rough weather as police deny nod

The police action came hours after the Centre and the Jayalalithaa Government raised certain objections in the Madras High Court yesterday particularly to the use of the word "Eelam" (separate home land for Tamils) in the meet's title.

Police have denied permission on various grounds which cannot be divulged as the matter was sub-judice, Chennai Police Commissioner J K Tripathy told PTI today.

Putting up a brave face, the 88-year old DMK patriarch, who is trying to resuscitate the defunct Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation floated by him in the 80s, said all legal steps would be taken for holding the meet as scheduled.

Karunanidhi, who went into a huddle with his senior party colleagues to discuss the police action, said the Police Commissioner's order mentioned they had information that LTTE activists and other extremist organisations might take part in the meet but dismissed their apprehension as "totally untrue".

Eelam signifies the separate nationhood concept from Sri Lanka, the core of armed struggle by the now decimated LTTE, which is not in consonance with India's stand on the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka.

Karunanidhi had formed TESO in the wake of murderous attacks on minority Tamils in Sri Lanka in the 80s and revived it recently in the backdrop of war crime charges against the island nation during its battle against LTTE in 2009.

Controversy has hit the pro-Eelam meet with Congress, a key ally of DMK in the ruling UPA, dissociating itself from it while Karunanidhi himself had done flip-flops after first stating that the meet would adopt a resolution on Eelam only to clarify it would discuss steps for the livelihood of Tamils. MORE