CM backing secessionists: Jayalalitha

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, OCT. 19. Accusing the Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, of establishing bonds with ``extremists and secessionists'', the AIADMK general secretary, Ms. Jayalalitha, today urged the Centre to take ``appropriate steps'' to prevent the emergence of a separate Tamil nation in the Western Ghats range of India. In a statement, she alleged that extremist and terrorist outfits, in collusion with Veerappan, were planning to cause turmoil and create havoc and anarchy in the State ``when a new government is formed under my leadership'' after the next Assembly election.

Mr. Karunanidhi, she said, was planning to release those, who killed police personnel and those who planted bombs in trains. ``This will destroy the unity and sovereignty of the country and endanger the nation's security. The Western Ghats will become a danger zone and the nucleus of a separate State within a State,'' she warned.

Asking the people to ``discard'' Mr. Karunanidhi in the next election, she alleged that he was planning to ``sectionalise the country to form the separate Tamil nation of his dreams.''

If the situation was not curbed, just as in some States like Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh where ``parallel governments'' were being run by the naxalites in some districts, the ``same sort of ambience for such parallel governments would be created in Tamil Nadu too,'' she said. But even in those States, there was no alliance between the Left extremists and murderous elements like Veerappan, as in Tamil Nadu.

The government had sent as an emissary a ``secessionist and LTTE stooge,'' Mr. P. Nedumaran, who had exhorted the voters to declare themselves as Tamil nationals and not Indian nationals, she said.

Stating that it was doubtful whether the Chief Minister would reveal to the Supreme Court the full details pertaining to the operations against Veerappan, she said Mr. Karunanidhi, during his four-and-a-half-year rule, had not taken any action to capture the sandalwood smuggler.

During the AIADMK rule, the special task force headed by Mr. W.I. Dawaram, had reduced Veerappan's gang of 150 to just five members. But after Mr. Karunanidhi came to power, Veerappan regained strength and now commanded a force of 150, she said.

During the time she was at the helm of affairs, there were 28 encounters between Veerappan and the STF and 58 of Veerappan gangsters were killed. More than 100 members of his gang were arrested. But during the DMK rule, there was not even one encounter between the police and Veerappan, she said.

When Mr. Rajkumar was abducted, Veerappan had just two firearms and 12 persons with him. ``Today, because of the efflux of time in the name of on-going talks, the TNLA and the TNRT, apart from the LTTE, have been allowed to join hands with Veerappan,'' she said.

There were many instances of Mr. Karunanidhi ``nurturing and protecting'' extremists while he was in power. In 1996, Mr. Karunanidhi had released some terrorists from prison and withdrawn TADA cases against them, she said. This had given a fillip to ISI activities in Tamil Nadu which led to the Coimbatore blasts, she added.

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