By IANS
New Delhi/Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi announced Sunday that he and his supporters would fast Monday, after the Supreme Court stayed a strike called by his DMK party to speed up work on the Sethusamudram shipping canal project in the sea dividing India and Sri Lanka.
Stunned by the judicial intervention, which followed a petition filed by the AIADMK challenging the DMK-sponsored strike Monday, the octogenarian said: “We will observe a day’s token fast against all those who are obstructing the progress of the project to demonstrate our protest.”
Karunanidhi termed those opposing the project as “nandis” – a reference to the celestial bull obstructing the view of the sanctum sanctorum.
“Our action is against the Nandis who are obstructing the progress of the Sethusamudram Project,” he told reporters in Chennai.
“I do not want to comment on the ruling of the Supreme Court, but I would like to say that all our allies are with us in this protest,” he added.
DMK sources said Karunanidhi, one of the country’s most experienced politicians, would begin the fast between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. outside the Government Guest House in Chepauk in Chennai along with senior cabinet colleagues as well as DMK leaders.
DMK’s allies would take part in the fast in Chennai and also in all major towns in Tamil Nadu’s 30 districts. But it was not clear if the Congress party would throw its lot with Karunanidhi.
The strike stayed by the court had been called to urge the central government to get the Supreme Court to vacate its stay on the construction of the Sethusamudram canal.
After a three-hour hearing in a rare sitting on a holiday, the bench of Acting Chief Justice B.N Agrawal and Justice P.P. Naolekar ordered DMK and allies to desist from sponsoring any bandh either Monday or later.
“We cannot tolerate this type of conducts from political parties, more so when it’s the ruling one,” said the bench.
“The public right to have a normal life is far superior than those of individual political parties’ rights.
“Your protest is against whom… the project, the central government or against this court?” the bench asked, leaving the counsel for the state government and DMK, senior counsel Altaf Ahmed and A.K. Ganguly respectively, fumbling for words.
Rejecting their arguments that Monday’s protest programme was not a “bandh” (shutdown) but rather a “hartal” (strike), the bench said, “Your own resolution says that the programme on Oct 1 is intended to ensure complete cessation of all activities. Then how can you say it is not a bandh?
“If it is a bandh then it is a breakdown of the constitutional machinery.”
The bench also dismissed their contentions that the Oct 1 programme would primarily comprise of public meetings.
“Where is the public meeting; you show us. Your resolution says it is cessation of all activities and work. You want to show your popularity. Why do you want to close down all educational institutions and commercial activities? Where will you then find the people for your meetings?”
Recalling the apex court’s 1998 ruling, which had upheld a Kerala High Court judgment declaring strikes, shutout and bandhs as “illegal and unconstitutional per se”, the bench lamented that orders of the courts were being violated with impunity.
“We have come to this stage in the country that everything has to be monitored, hammered or directed by courts. Even orders of the Supreme Court are not observed, what to talk of the high courts,” it said.
A division bench of the Madras High Court Friday allowed the bandh, advising the state government to order all top officials “to ensure that no political parties or organisations can by force or intimidation stop or interfere with the road and rail traffic and free movement of citizens”.
The AIADMK, which has come out publicly against the canal, Saturday approached the Supreme Court to stop the strike.
The canal project has become deeply divisive after the central government hurriedly withdrew an affidavit from the Supreme Court that questioned the very existence of Hindu god Ram.
The affidavit was meant to justify the project, some of whose critics allege that the canal would damage a so-called bridge built during the Ramayana era to help Ram cross over into Lanka.
A furious Karunanidhi then came out with hard-hitting comments criticising Ram, angering Hindu groups that wanted the canal project to be axed or have a different alignment.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister is determined that the canal should come up. The government says the project will cost less time and money for movement of ships between the west and east coasts of India.
His decision to go on fast was criticised by noted political commentator Cho S. Ramaswamy. “This impotent protest of a hunger strike is born out of anger against (AIADMK chief) Jayalalitha, the central government and the judiciary.
“Karunanidhi is very angry at the centre for having taken the stand that they will consider alternate proposals for the Sethusamudram project but he cannot vent his anger against it because he is more dependant on them than they are on him,” he said.
Political parties headed by thespians Vijay Kant and Sarat Kumar had opposed the bandh and now the hunger strike, saying both were uncalled for.
“Against whom is the DMK protesting? Why can’t the chief minister get the matter raised in the union cabinet?” Kumar asked.