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Jaya sets deadline for Karunanidhi's dismissal

N Sathiya Moorthy in Madras

All India Anna DMK chief Jayalalitha has reportedly set August 1 as the deadline for the Centre to dismiss the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in Tamil Nadu. To press this demand, the party intends to withdraw its two remaining ministers from the Vajpayee government, possibly by July 1, and withdrawing its parliamentary support at a later date. The schedule is yet to be finalised, according to party sources.

Jayalalitha is reported to have hinted at this to Prime Minister A B Vajpayee in a personal letter sent through an AIADMK delegation last week. She also spoke in a similar vein at the party's executive committee meeting in Madras on Monday, according to party sources.

What, however, seems to have piqued the AIADMK leadership is the reservations reportedly expressed by its electoral allies. Barring Janata Party chief Dr Subramanian Swamy, others have reservations in upsetting the apple-cart at the Centre, for their own political reasons.

While Dr Swamy is all for the dismissal of the DMK government -- as also for unseating the Vajpayee government at the Centre -- the MDMK with three MPs and the PMK with four, do not want early assembly election, or the withdrawal of support to the BJP.

Stripped of the vague wording of their arguments, both the MDMK leaders fear that early assembly polls could lead to either a defeat for the combine, or the return of Jayalalitha with an absolute majority for the AIADMK. "This could lead to her sidelining the allies completely, and finishing us off with greater vehemence than she might show the DMK," says an MDMK leader.

If the MDMK is a suspect in the AIADMK's eyes, Jayalalitha had a hour-long discussion with PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss last Monday. Though she is known to have scouted for the party's backing to withdraw support to the Vajpayee government, the latter has reportedly advised caution. According to PMK sources, the party would stand by the AIADMK in case of an assembly election, but would not "let down the BJP" if Jayalalitha withdrew support.

Meanwhile, Dr Swamy today urged Jayalalitha, to set a deadline for the Centre to dismiss the DMK government.

Participating in a meet-the-press programme in Bangalore, he said he had not set any deadline, but wanted Jayalalitha to do so.

Similar demands in other states could not be linked to this, as there was evidence to show that the DMK government had "actively collaborated" with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and Islamic fundamentalists, he claimed.

He maintained that none of the cases involving Jayalalitha was connected with the Centre. He also accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of "playing politics" by sanctioning projects to Tamil Nadu which were not needed immediately.

To a question, he ruled out his party snapping its ties with the AIADMK.

He criticised the general Budget passed in Parliament yesterday, and said the government should be voted out.

He said he had already written to the President to seek a fresh list of those supporting the government as he and former Union minister Buta Singh had withdrawn support. "The government was a front for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh," he alleged.

On the vexatious Cauvery issue, he said linking of major rivers like the Godavari and Mahanadi was the only alternative to solve the problem.

Terming the recent nuclear tests at Pokhran as "premature and immature", Dr Swamy said it brought Pakistan, China and the United States together and had put India in a "first class soup". India could survive sanctions, he told a questioner. The stopping of loans by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund would affect the country, he added.

He alleged that preparations for the construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya by December 6 was going on, and said it would be a fait accompli on the nation.

Additional reportage: UNI

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