A visibly relieved DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Monday announced he would not have to resort to fasting on the US resolution against Sri Lanka since the Prime Minister has announced Indian support for it. Neither was it necessary for his party’s high-level committee to meet on this issue on Tuesday, he told reporters soon after the PM’s Parliament assurance that India “is inclined to vote with the US” at the UNHRC.
Interestingly, Mr Karunanidhi released copies of the resolution that was to come out of his high-level committee session, which said the party would pull out its ministers from the Union Cabinet and only extend issue-based support to the Manmohan Government. But now there was no need for such extreme measures, said the beaming DMK chief, adding, “We are happy and satisfied with the Prime Minister’s announcement”.
“I had announced fasting if India did not support the US resolution in UNHRC. Now that’s not necessary because India is backing the resolution”, he said, terming it as a victory for his fight.
It would have been a tough situation for the DMK and its patriarch if the PM had not bailed them out with that Parliament statement.
Apart from the discomfort of having to sit in fast—the sniggers at his previous ‘outing’ by the beach during the peak of Eelam war, continue to this day—there were serious concerns among senior lieutenants in the party about pulling out of the Union Cabinet with the Spectrum sword on the one side and the string of land-grab cases slapped on many of them by the state government.
But still, remaining in the UPA Government became untenable amid all the Tamil fury at Delhi’s ‘insensitiveness’ to the Lankan carnage.
The happy DMK chief’s 12-page media release listed out over 40 instances of the party taking up the Lankan Tamil cause, beginning with founder Anna’s January 29, 1956 rally in Chidambaram, where he (Karunanidhi) moved the resolution demanding equal rights for the Tamils in the island country.