Chennai: Ending days of uncertainty, the DMK on Friday decided not to pull out of the UPA Government over the 2G spectrum scam, but accused the CBI of adopting ‘double standards’ by arresting party MP Kanimozhi in the case. Emerging out of a nearly two-hour meeting, DMK chief M Karunanidhi said he has nothing against the Congress and was not disappointed with the party not helping it in the case.
However, he said the DMK’s General Council will meet next month to decide on its ties with other parties as it was the only authorised body to take such important decisions. ‘I have nothing against the Congress. I am not disappointed over Congress not helping us in the 2G spectrum issue,’ he told reporters scotching speculation that DMK would pull out all its six Ministers from the UPA Government in the wake of his daughter Kanimozhi lodged in Tihar jail.
The party has 18 MPs in Lok Sabha and is the third largest partner of the UPA. In a resolution adopted at the meeting attended by senior leaders K Anbazhagan, M K Stalin, M K Alagiri and Dayanidhi Maran, the DMK charged the CBI with adopting ‘double standards’ in arresting Kanimozhi in the 2G scam case. The meeting also decided to fight legally the charge against Kalaignar TV, in which Kanimozhi and her stepmother Dayalu Ammal are stakeholders, that Rs 200 crore loan received by it from DB Realty was part of the 2G scam.
The committee maintained that the loan was part of a private transaction and had nothing to do with the 2G spectrum allocation scam. The transaction was private, transparent and done through banks, it said. DMK’s decision ends days of suspense whether the party would continue its alliance with Karunanidhi himself blaming the Centre for Kanimozhi’s arrest. Strains between DMK and Congress surfaced after Karunanidhi fired the first salvo, saying ‘bad friendship ends in trouble.’
Karunanidhi refused to subsribe to the view that the party was defeated in the April 13 assembly polls due to the 2G scam. ‘Some vested interests due to jealousy had blown the 2G issue out of proportion,’ he said. On the arrest of Kanimozhi and Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sarath Kumar, the resolution said that the CBI, which interrogated both, did not arrest them then. ‘But when they appeared before the special court at Delhi, they were arrested. CBI pleaded against their release on bail.
This exposes the double standards of CBI,’ the resolution said. It noted that legal experts had stated Kanimozhi’s arrest was íllegal and said the DMK would fight it out in the Supreme Court. In a bid to create public awareness on the issue, the party decided to organise public meetings all over the state for ten days from June 20, the resolution said. The meeting also decided to convene a meeting of the party’s general council next month. (PTI)