TN MPs threaten to resign en masse
Sanjay Pinto, Sam Daniel
Wednesday, October 15, 2008, (Chennai)
A shrill ultimatum has come from Tamil Nadu's 39 MPs. They have threatened to resign if the Centre doesn't stop military aid to Sri Lanka and send relief material to the Tamils under attack within two weeks.
The decision was taken after a meeting of the DMK, Congress, PMK and the Left in Chennai.
It is tough posturing again by Chief Minister Karunanidhi. Just last week, he had threatened to sacrifice his government over the Centre's inaction.
K V Thangabalu, MP, Congress, presses: "All parties are united in this stand."
And as parties here up the ante on the plight of Lankan Tamils, a footage shot by a documentary filmmaker -- made available to political leaders in the state -- is being used to fuel claims of an alleged genocide.
PMK president G K Mani says: "In 25 years, the situation has never been so bad. If it is allowed to continue, Tamils will be wiped out of Sri Lanka."
Political commentator S Murari adds: "Whenever the LTTE suffers serious reverses, pro-LTTE voices protest. Even the two Dravidian giants, the DMK and AIADMK have got sucked into this competitive chauvinism."
The filmmaker who does not want to be indentified, says these are civilian areas, 35 kms from the LTTE headquarters in Killinochi, subjected to aerial bombing recently between the 14th September and the 9th October. While these claims cannot be verified, the incident coincides with news reports of the bombing of a school bus.