M A I N   N E W S

President speaks to TN Governor
T. R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30
Even as AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha sent the BJP-led NDA government into a tizzy by swooping on her arch rival and DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and arresting him in the wee hours of Saturday, President K. R. Narayanan spoke to Governor Fathima Beevi in the evening.

The telephonic conversation that Mr Narayanan had with Ms Beevi as the constitutional head of the southern state assumes importance. He is believed to have discussed the rapid-fire developments in Chennai connected with the arrest of Mr Karunanidhi and also inquired about the former Chief Minister’s health as also that of the two DMK ministers in the NDA government Mr Murasoli Maran and Mr T. R. Baalu.

The President has been watching the events in Tamil Nadu keenly and has also received letters during the day from Mr Baalu, DMK General Secretary Anbaghazan and the regional party’s Rajya Sabha MP P.N. Siva. All three DMK leaders explained the sequence of events and the highdrama at Mr Karunanidhi’s residence and urged Mr Narayanan to intervene in the matter.

Interestingly, Mr Karunanidhi is also believed to have taken a large number of telephone calls made to Rashtrapati Bhavan by politicians, academicians and the public expressing their anger and resentment in the manner in which the septuagenarian Mr Karunanidhi was manhandled and jostled around before being arrested.

A disturbed Mr Narayanan also spoke to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee over the phone about the unsavoury happenings in Chennai. Mr Vajpayee briefed the President about the emergency meeting of the NDA that he had convened to take stock of the situation. The Prime Minister informed the President that he had also sought a detailed report from the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu.

It may be recalled that when the AIADMK-headed Secular Front swept the May assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, the state Governor had not consulted the President before inviting Ms Jayalalitha to form the government.

The assault and manhandling of the 78-year-old Mr Karunanidhi has compelled the Vajpayee government to take a serious view of the turn of events in Chennai.

The fued and bitterness between the two Dravidian parties has brought to the fore that the ruling clique occupying the seat of power at Fort St George in Chennai will adopt any means in settling scores through political vendatta.

The leaders of the BJP and other constituents of the NDA contend that personal idiosyncracies appear to be a norm with the AIADMK leadership in Tamil Nadu rather than following the rule of law and adhering to the provisions of the Constitution.

Ms Jayalalitha’s action in moving against Mr Karunanidhi in the manner that she did, besides singling out Mr Maran and Mr Baalu for special treatment in Chennai, has also come in for intense criticism.

The overwhelming view among the discriminating leaders and others in Tamil Nadu is that Ms Jayalalitha has assiduously been plotting Mr Karunanidhi’s arrest ever since she assumed the office of Chief Minister seven weeks ago. Therefore, Mr Karunanidhi’s arrest has not come as a surprise but the manner in which it was effected has sent shock waves across the state.

Sources in Chennai point out that whatever she has attempted to do in the past one and a half months has proved to be highly counter-productive in the eyes of the masses. The means adopted to arrest Mr Karunanidhi is bound to earn him some sympathy.

Large-scale preventive arrests have been undertaken in Tamil Nadu to avoid trouble and send a signal of being tough. Ms Jayalalitha’s next endeavour will be to see that the call for a bandh given by the DMK-led NDA in Tamil Nadu on Monday does not succeed.

The NDA is once again caught in a cleft stick about invoking Article 356 of the government as demanded by some of its constituents. The Congress is unwilling to play ball on this issue of dismissing the state government as it firmly believes that such a stern step is unwarranted.

In Tamil Nadu, the Congress high command has no option but to remain with the AIADMK even though Ms Jayalalitha snubbed its party President Sonia Gandhi when it came to the allocation of seats.

Obviously, Ms Jayalalitha sees an element of urgency in getting her agenda in place vis-a-vis the DMK as she has another four and a half months remaining to get elected to the state Assembly, failing which she has to step down as Chief Minister. As of now there is a big question mark on her being eligible to contest for the Assembly due to her conviction entailing imprisonment of three years in two cases.

More ex-militants want to return
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30
Even as both the Centre and the Punjab Governments continued to deny the existence of any deal or official involvement in the return of the two Punjab militants, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal and Jagjit Singh Chohan, highly placed intelligence sources said here that at least six others living abroad had also expressed their desire to return.

For reasons of “national security and the personal safety of those involved”, the sources refused to divulge their names but indicated that out of the half a dozen, two were in Pakistan, two in the USA and at least another two in England and other European countries.

Most of them had fled the country in the late eighties after the government crackdown on militants and had sought refuge abroad. Majority of them had found their way to Western countries via Pakistan as it was a well known fact that they were all operating under the patronage of Pakistan’s ISI.

In fact, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal after his arrest in April this year had told his interrogators that many of his former associates in the Khalistan Commando Force (KCF), had indicated to him that they too wanted to return as they were totally disillusioned and realised that the dream of a separate Sikh state, Khalistan, was at best a chimera.

Moreover, the ISI too had realised the futility of patronising militants in Punjab as the focus had changed to Jammu and Kashmir. These militants, who had fled abroad, suddenly realised that they were left high and dry and had to fend for themselves.

Since the ISI funds had dried up, many had to survive on the mercy of their friends and well-wishers settled abroad. The sources said those wanting to return had sought legal opinion and had conveyed their intentions through their “well-wishers, intermediaries and political contacts here”.

The militants also feel that the cases registered against them here would not be able to stand in court as most of the witnesses had either died over the past 20 years or lost the will to pursue the cases. Crucial evidence in some of the cases may also have dissipated, they feel.

Moreover, the Punjab Government has repeatedly urged the Centre to review the blacklist of Sikhs and allow those against whom there are no serious cases to return so that they could join the mainstream. Zaffarwal and Chohan had also discussed their plans to return as early as January this year when Zaffarwal was still in Switzerland.