Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minster and DMK Leader  M Karunanidhi has termed the resolution passed by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in the Assembly urging the Centre to impose economic sanctions on Sri Lanka as an age-old tactic adopted to mislead the people.

A DMK high level executive committee meeting passed a resolution on Friday condemning Jayalalithaa for making a speech filled with enmity attacking the DMK and its leader Karunanidhi, despite the DMK’s willingness to support the resolution passed by the AIADMK on Eelam Tamils in Assembly on Thursday.

The resolution said that in the previous AIADMK regime, the party’s general secretary Jayalalithaa never supported the Eelam cause.

Pointing out an incident in 2002, the resolution said the AIADMK had passed a resolution urging the then Central Government to push the Sri Lankan government to arrest LTTE chief Prabhakaran and hand him over to India. The party had also passed a resolution to not allow any LTTE member inside India.

The resolution also condemned Jayalalithaa for her remark that, “it was not the intention of the Sri Lankan army to kill the Tamils. However, it was war and innocents were bound to be killed.” The resolution stated that she had supported the Sri Lankan Government’s war against the LTTE and had condemned the LTTE for using the Eelam Tamils as shield against the Sri Lankan Army.

On the Katchatheevu issue, the DMK stated that since 1974 the party had urged the Centre to reconsider its agreement with Sri Lanka ceding Katchatheevu to them.

When Karunanidhi was chief minister in 1974, he passed a resolution in the Assembly urging the Centre to reconsider its decision. The party had also held a protest across TN condemning the 1974 agreement.

The DMK resolution pointed out that the party had addressed the Katchatheevu issue in its 2011 election manifesto, where it had urged the Centre to retrieve the island. (Express News Service)