Nedumaran seeks panel to probe Fathima Beevi's actions

By Our Special Correspondent

SALEM, JULY 3. The Tamil Nationalist Movement leader, Mr. P. Nedumaran, has called for setting up of a commission to go into whether the actions of Ms. Fathima Beevi in her gubernatorial assignment were within the purview of the Constitution.

Mr. Nedumaran, who was here to meet `Kolathur' Mani (who has been arrested on sedition charges recently), told presspersons that from the beginning, Ms. Beevi did not seem to have given due respect to ``constitutional propriety''.

She administered the oath of office to Ms. Jayalalithaa as Chief Minister, even though she was disqualified from contesting Assembly elections. The erstwhile Governor did not deem it fit to get the opinion of either the Attorney-General or the President.

Coming down heavily on police action, Mr. Nedumaran said the khaki-clad personnel had been dealing brutally with the masses all along, and their high-handedness came to light when they manhandled the former Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi.

He wanted the personnel, who disregarded human rights, to be weeded out or else a `police raj' would come into force. In the arrest of Mr. Karunanidhi, ``human rights were blatantly violated, democratic rights thrown to the winds and the Constitution was trampled upon''.

Asked whether he favoured dissolution of the Tamil Nadu Government, Mr. Nedumaran said it was his movement's stance that Article 356 must be scrapped and no elected government dismissed. Whenever a State Government went wrong, the Centre was armed with adequate powers to deal with the situation without invoking Article 356.

Condemning the arrest of `Kolathur' Mani, he said he had played a vital role in the release of the Kannada thespian, Mr. Rajkumar, from the clutches of the forest brigand, Veerappan. Mr. Nedumaran said the agitation scheduled for July 5 by the People Rights Federation at Mettur to protest the arrest of Kolathur Mani, appointment of Mr. W. I. Dawaram as the STF chief and non-payment of compensation to the STF victims, had been put off. The date would be announced later, he added.

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