By IANS,
Chennai : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK boss M. Karunanidhi’s appeal for a “voluntary shutdown” Thursday to press for a permanent ceasefire in Sri Lanka has triggered derision from the opposition.
“The unprecedented genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka is being feebly countered by Karunanidhi with ineffective measures like shutdowns and telegrams to the centre instead of forcing the issue,” AIADMK boss Jayalalitha said in a statement Wednesday.
PMK leader S. Ramadoss said in a separate statement: “The chief minister’s lament is pathetic and useless against a government at the centre that is immune and immobile to the sufferings of our Tamil brethren in Sri Lanka.”
Late Tuesday, Karunanidhi appealed for a general strike. Requesting the central government to initiate immediate measures to force Sri Lanka stop the war he said: “All parties and the general public should voluntarily agree for a dawn to dusk peaceful shutdown Thursday.”
In a letter addressed to party cadres, Karunanidhi added: “We have no other recourse but to lament the loss of innocent Tamil lives in Sri Lanka and registering our protest by peaceful means.”
During the run-up to the parliamentary elections scheduled May 13 in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, while all regional and national parties are pressing for an immediate end to the killings of innocent Tamil civilians in war-torn Sri Lanka, most parties have decried support to the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).