Police behaviour deplorable, say Moopanar, Ramadoss

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JUNE 30. The TMC president, Mr. G. K. Moopanar, and the PMK founder-leader, Dr. S. Ramadoss, two key allies of the AIADMK, besides the Left parties, led a volley of protests by political parties against the manner in which the former Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi, was arrested here in the wee hours today.

The police's behaviour at Mr. Karunanidhi's residence after entering it well past midnight and the treatment meted out to one of the seniormost politicians were utterly deplorable, Mr. Moopanar said in a statement here. No democratic set-up would accept such action by the police.

Faulting the police action, Dr. Ramadoss said swooping down on the residence of the former Chief Minister even disregarding his age and the office he had occupied was ``wrong''. The arrest could have been effected smoothly.

The TNCC(I) president, Mr. E. V. K. S. Elangovan said the police action was `highly deplorable'. What was the hurry to arrest Mr. Karunanidhi at dead of night when he was not going to run away from Tamil Nadu, he asked.

The CPI(M)'s Tamil Nadu State Committee secretary, Mr. N. Sankariah, said the mode of arrest caused resentment among the people, which was very unfortunate.

The CPI State secretary, Mr. R. Nallakannu, said the brutal manner in which the police picked up Mr. Karunanidhi was ``very wrong''. When urgent issues like drinking water scarcity had to be tackled, such actions against the Opposition parties and the media would divert the people's attention, the CPI warned and urged the release of all those arrested.

`Against all democratic norms'

Strongly condemning the ``manner in which the Tamil Nadu Government behaved with the former Chief Minister and also the assault on the two Union Ministers,'' the senior BJP leader, Mr. M. Venkaiah Naidu, said this was ``atrocious, barbaric and against all democratic norms.''

Deploring the manner in which Mr. Karunanidhi was arrested the TMC-DF president, Mr. P. Chidambaram, said at Nagercoil that the incident was ``distressing and sorrowful'', never witnessed in the past in a democratic nation. Had the police or the Government informed him earlier, Mr. Karunanidhi would have proceeded to the police station on his own accord.

The MDMK leader, Mr. Vaiko, condemned the police action as ``atrocious and high-handed''. It only exposed the ``political vindictiveness and the jungle raj of the Jayalalithaa regime,'' he said and demanded the immediate release of Mr. Karunanidhi.

The Janata Party president, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, in a statement from Boston, U.S., said the arrest ``violates the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court, in the Joginer Singh and D. Basu cases. ``It thus constitutes contempt of the Supreme Court,'' he added.

``It is an abuse that puts democracy to shame,'' said the UCPI State unit, even as the former MP, Mr. Era Sezhiyan, was perplexed at this sudden development. Elections by themselves ``are a sort of verdict'' on the Government and beyond that if serious mistakes had taken place, the law could take its course.

The DPI organiser, Mr. R. Tirumavalavan, criticising the arrest, said it would not be incorrect to impose President's rule in Tamil Nadu if the situation warranted. The Puthiya Tamizhagam's President, Dr. K. Krishnasamy, said the police `high-handedness' in arresting the former Chief Minister, despite his frail health and age, was out and out an act of ``political vendetta''.

Others who have joined in condemning the ``uncivil and undemocratic arrest'' of Mr. Karunanidhi included the Janata Dal(S) State president, Mr. G. A. Vadivelu, the MGR-ADMK general secretary, Mr. S. Thirunavukkarasu, the TMMK general secretary, Mr. S. Hyder Ali, the former Minister, Mr. S. D. Somasundaram, the Makkal Tamil Desam founder-leader, Mr. S. Kannappan, the Tamils Nationalist Movement leader, Mr. P. Nedumaran, Tamizh Pattali Makkal Katchi leader, Prof. Dheeran, the Muvendar Munnetra Kazhagam founder, Dr. N. Sethuraman, Mr. A. S. Kumar (CPI-ML), the Thondar Congress president, Mr. Kumari Ananthan, Tamil Nadu Nationalist Congress Party president, Mr. G. P. Sarathy, the Tamizhar Bhoomi leader, Mr. Ku. Pa. Krishnan, the Samata Party State youth general secretary, Mr. R. Veerasekaran, the Bharatiya Republican Party's State organiser, Mr. V. E. R. Chozhan, the Indian Christian Rights Organisation and the All- India Confederation of SC/ST Organisations, New Delhi.

Veeramani charge

The Dravidar Kazhagam, Mr. K. Veeramani, however, condemned Mr. Karunanidhi for ``bringing disrepute to the Dravidian tradition'' by refusing to cooperate with the police who came to arrest him. The ``drama'' was enacted to disrupt law and order with the political motive to get the duly elected AIADMK Government which took over only 45 days ago, dismissed, he said.

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