PMK against release of extremists

By Our Special Correspondent

COIMBATORE, AUG. 11. The PMK leader, Dr. S. Ramadoss, told presspersons here today that the five Tamil extremists should not be released, as supposedly demanded by the forest brigand, Veerappan in exchange for the Kannada actor, Mr. Rajkumar.

``We want Mr. Rajkumar to be released at the earliest. However, the demands supposed to have been made by Veerappan are definitely not his own and seem to be that of some extremist organisation''.

The release of such extremists would be like that of some Kashmiri terrorists in exchange for the daughter of the former Union Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed.

He disputed the allegations that the Special Task Force, constituted to nab the forest outlaw, had been emasculated by the Government itself and hence had become a useless force. The STF was doing its best, he claimed.

He dismissed reports that his party had proposed to give a seat for the wife of Veerappan in the coming Assembly elections and would admit Veerappan also into the party as ``totally unfounded rumours''.

``Even if Veerappan were to be granted amnesty we have no intention of admitting him in our party''.

Responding to a question on coalition politics, he said parties should contest individually without forging alliances. ``Then we can know the strength of the Dravidian parties like the DMK and the AIADMK''. Many of the 56 parties in the State would vanish into thin air then, he said.

He wanted the Dravidian parties not to have any truck with the so-called national parties as the latter had been riding piggyback on them all the time. ``There is no necessity for the Dravidian parties to help the national parties grow''.

Dr. Ramadoss was all for passing the Women's Reservation Bill during the current session of Parliament itself. ``Reservation should be proportional to the population of women- hence it should be 52 per cent'', he asserted. He also lamented that the Congress(I) was not behaving like a ``responsible opposition'' as it had been wasting a lot of Parliament time on flimsy issues.

To a question on his party's relations with the DMK, he reiterated that it continued to be smooth. At the same time, he said ``we have not established any rapport with any other party as rumoured''.

He claimed that his party's influence was growing even in southern and western districts. ``That is why we propose to contest at least 25 per cent of the seats offered to us by the alliance partner (DMK) from these two regions''.

His party will not join the Government even it is were invited (after the next elections). His aim was to capture power in Pondicherry in the next elections and in Tamil Nadu in 2006.

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Section  : Southern States
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