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Congress walkout planned, says Ponnaiyan

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai Sept. 21 . Describing the protest walkout by the Congress from yesterday's all-party meeting on the Cauvery issue as "irresponsible and unpardonable", the Finance Minister, C. Ponnaiyan, charged that it was pre-planned and aimed at favouring the Karnataka Government.

In a statement here, Mr. Ponnaiyan said the State Congress leaders, E.V.K.S. Elangovan and S.R. Balasubramaniam, had betrayed Tamil Nadu by making an exit from the meeting without initiating efforts at shelving the draft resolution demanding the dismissal of the Karnataka Government. "It only shows they had come with the intention of walking out on some pretext," Mr. Ponnaiyan said.

When several political leaders urged the Government to drop the resolution, the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, at the end of the meeting, shelved the demand. Normally, at such consultations, the pros and cons of draft resolutions would be discussed and finalised.

However, without taking part in the discussions and expressing their views to benefit Tamil Nadu, the Congress leaders walked out.

The Minister also criticised the DMK boycott and the "contradictory" statements by the PMK leaders, G.K. Mani and S. Ramadoss, on the Cauvery issue.

While Mr. Mani insisted at the all-party meeting that the Centre issue a warning to Karnataka invoking Article 355, media reports quoted Dr. Ramadoss as having demanded the ouster of the Karnataka Government invoking Article 356. "Their conflicting statements, despite belonging to the same party, only show that they have no concern for or interest in presenting clear-cut views and that they have made a habit of making unproductive statements for political gains," charged Mr. Ponnaiyan.

PT protest

Meanwhile, the Puthiya Tamizhagam and the Makkal Tamil Desam have criticised the Government for not inviting them to the meeting.

In separate statements here today, they said it was unfortunate that while parties which were not registered with the Election Commission were allowed to participate, they were ignored.

The PT founder president, K. Krishnasamy, said as MLA he had raised the Cauvery issue in the Assembly several times and the party organised agitations demanding justice to the State. Now the Government, by not inviting him, was trying to avoid the party which had a mass base, he said.

The Makkal Tamil Desam president, S. Kannappan, said that as his party was registered with the EC, the Government had no right to deny it an invitation.

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