By IANS,
Chennai : The war of words between Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and Leader of Opposition J. Jayalalitha over last week’s clash between two groups of law students reached a crescendo Tuesday, with the DMK supremo being threatened with legal action.
“For alleging that the opposition engineered the inhuman attacks in the Ambedkar Law College Campus, I will take legal action against Karunanidhi,” Jayalalitha said in a statement.
“A casual aside was twisted out of context to cause a political crisis. This challenge will, however, be met in courts,” Karunanidhi retorted, while speaking to reporters.
A former state police chief dismissed the cross-fire as “empty rhetoric” that was meant to drive attention away from the plight of the ethnic Tamil minority in Sri Lanka.
“This is a mere empty rhetoric. The riots in the law college campus and the apparent police inaction cornered the attention of the media for over two days during last week’s assembly session, leaving visiting Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s blunt refusal to heed to the state’s demand for an immediate ceasefire in the island and ignoring India’s concerns expressed in the state assembly,” the former official told IANS, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Further, it is extremely doubtful if the legal challenges and its counters will fructify in court because lawyers on both sides will have a chance to hurl political accusations in the name of cross examination, which neither side will relish. So, this is a mere empty rhetoric,” he added.
The DMK has been demanding that India play a proactive role in forcing a ceasefire in Sri Lanka between the army and the Tamil Tiger rebels.
Karunanidhi had warned that all MPs from Tamil Nadu would quit unless New Delhi acted. He was later pacified after External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee specially visited Chennai to explain the steps India has taken on this issue.