TAMILNADU CM REQUEST CENTRE TO INTERVENE!!!

Karunanidhi asks Centre to depute Pranab to Lanka



Chennai (PTI): Upping the ante on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Saturday made a "tearful appeal" to the Centre to immediately depute External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Colombo to make efforts to ensure a ceasefire there.
"We are ready to even sacrifice our lives for the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils. Every minute wasted by the Centre (in ensuring a ceasefire) is a Tamil life lost. We make a tearful appeal to the Centre to immediately send Mukherjee to Sri Lanka, as promised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," Karunanidhi said at the DMK general council after being elected President for the tenth time.

"We are waiting for him to go to Sri Lanka and are hopeful of a solution," he said.

The DMK's biggest challenge lay in saving the lives of Sri Lankan Tamils and this effort should be in line with the policies of the government of India, he said.

"It should not be a path of violence and other anti-national means. We will accept the decision of the Centre in this issue, but it is sitting over the problem and dragging it," he said, adding that Tamil Nadu would extend all possible cooperation to the Centre in this matter.

He also came down heavily on AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa for her remarks that the Sri Lankan army offensive in the northern parts of that country was not against Sri Lankan Tamils but only against LTTE.

Karunanidhi also recalled that he and his colleague K. Anbazhagan had resigned their MLA posts in 1983, expressing solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils.

The general council adopted a resolution, urging the Centre to depute the External Affairs Minister to Sri Lanka immediately.
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