‘Move to sow communal discord’:

Karunanidhi’s symposium, a damp squib

by Manjula FERNANDO

The pro-Tiger TESO symposium organised by ex-Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK Chief Muthuvel Karunanidhi today has failed to get any backing from the Indian government or the TN State administration since many have criticized it as a move to sow communal discord among people in Sri Lanka.

In a major setback to Karunanidhi, the Chennai city police haverefused permission to the pro-Tiger meet, which effectively means that the event cannot be held in a public setting. Diplomatic Sources said, there were two components to the ‘international meet’, a symposium open only to invited guests held in the morning at a hotel and a planned public event at the YMCA grounds in Royapettah, in the afternoon.

The police action came hours after the Centre and the Jayalalithaa Government raised certain objections in the Madras High Court particularly to the use of the word “Eelam” in the meeting’s title.

Chennai Police Commissioner J K Tripathy told PTI yesterday, the grounds on which the public event was banned cannot be divulged as the matter was sub-judice. However, his order referred to concerns that LTTE activists and other extremist organisations might take part in the parley.

In another blow to Karunanidhi, a single judge of Madras High Court yesterday declined to hear a plea by TESO, challenging the ban on the ‘international’conference. Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar directed that the petition be put before Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal for placing it before a bench.

According to PTI, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in a letter to the organisers warned that they must ensure the conference does not issue any declaration or outcome that calls into question in any manner the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of any foreign country with whom India has diplomatic relations. Earlier in a letter dated August 9, 2012 it expressed the Ministry had no objection to the conference from a “political angle” but that the word “Eelam” may be dropped from the title of the conference.

Karunanidhi, who last month said that he would drop the demand for ‘Eelam’ from the program agenda, reportedly under pressure by the Centre, has not, however, acknowledged that the controversial word will be changed from the conference title.

It was not immediately clear if the organisers have been banned from holding only the public event scheduled in the evening or if they have been directed to postpone the entire conference.

“Karunanidhi is the political opponent of the current TN administration. Thus, it is unlikely that a decision in favor of the TESO organisers will be taken by the Tamil Nadu Police Commission,” authoritative diplomatic sources told the Sunday Observer earlier.

It was learnt that only NSSP Leader Dr. Wickremabhahu Karunaratne had left for Chennai from Sri Lanka to attend the symposium with the TNA deciding yesterday and all other Tamil parties earlier, not to attend.

It was not made known who the international participants were in the conference or if leading LTTE propagandists such as Fr. Emmanuel will be present. India last year denied him entry and sent him back to Dubai on his arrival at the Chennai airport.

He was on his way to deliver a lecture in Chennai.