DMK has not backtracked on quota for Muslims: CM

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MAY 12. The DMK has not back-tracked on its commitment to apportion a separate percentage of reservation for Muslims in Government jobs and educational institutions, the Chief Minister, Mr. M. Karunanidhi told the Assembly today.

``We are awaiting the final view of the Supreme Court'' in the reservation case and only then could the question of how much percentage could be set apart for the Muslims be decided, the Chief Minister said intervening in the debate on the demands for grants for Police, Fire Services and State Excise departments.

Taking exception to the INL leader, Mr. Abdul Latheef's remark that ``thousands of innocent Muslim youth'' were being jailed, Mr. Karunanidhi said such a sweeping allegation repeatedly made by the member was improper and it could create a rift between the minorities and the DMK.

Urging Mr. Latheef to furnish him a list of all the Muslim youths detained with sufficient details, Mr. Karunanidhi said if the charge was found true, he was prepared to take action.

But Mr. Latheef, though asserting that he could give the list, went quickly on the defensive to say that the numbers were not important. What mattered was redressal of the suffering even if it was caused to one Muslim, said Mr. Latheef.

Yesterday, speaking on the backward classes demand, a DMK MLA, Mr. Naina Mohammed, had also urged the Government to take steps to grant a separate quota for Muslims.

AIADMK's charge

Earlier during the debate, the AIADMK Group leader, Mr. P. R. Sundaram also clashed with the Chief Minister. He asserted that the incident leading to a Law College student, Ms. Geetha Priya, losing one of her eyes after being hit by a stone while travelling in a bus in Chennai on February 5, had nothing to do with the incidents (in Dharmapuri) that took place earlier when the Special Court on February 2 had delivered its judgment in the Pleasant Stay Hotel case, involving Ms. Jayalalitha.

Mr. Sundaram cited this to drive home yet another instance of what he termed the DMK Government trying to mar the image of Ms. Jayalalitha in its vindictive pursuit of ``false cases'' against her. The Chennai stone-throwing incident stemmed from a private fracas between two individuals, Mr. Sundaram claimed.

The Chennai incident in which Ms. Geetha Priya lost one of her eyes ``may or may not have been'' a sequel to the Dharmapuri violent incidents, but the Government had offered her a job after newspapers had highlighted the poor girl's plight, Mr. Karunanidhi said in countering Mr. Sundaram.

Asserting that he had not linked the two sets of incidents, Mr. Karunanidhi asked Mr. Sundaram whether the AIADMK member had any evidence to back his charge on this issue.

Recalling that a group of Law College students had come and met him to represent Ms. Geetha Priya's case and had urged that the Government on humanitarian grounds should help the victim, Mr. Karunanidhi said if Mr. Sundaram at that stage had issued a statement on what led to the stone- throwing incident in Chennai, the Government would have also taken that into consideration.

``I pity the member (Mr. Sundaram) if he were to say that the Government should not have shown sympathy to the girl,'' said Mr. Karunanidhi. Quick on his feet, Mr. Sundaram retorted that the AIADMK did not fault the Government for coming to the help of the affected girl by giving her a job, but only said that the February 5 happening should not be linked with the earlier incidents.

Another TMC member, Mr. C. Gnanasekharan, participating in the debate, deplored the Government on almost all fronts. Corruption at the lower level was widespread and if at all, the DMK had managed to remove ``just 10 per cent'' of it, he said and ridiculed the State police for its `inability' to arrest the forest-brigand, Veerappan.

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