Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

DMK will move Bill to ban all slaughters if support is assured

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI AUG. 25. The DMK president, M. Karunanidhi, today said his party would be ready to introduce a Bill seeking a ban on slaughter of all animals if an assurance of support came from the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs.

"If the assurance is given by the authorities concerned, we will move the bill", he told presspersons here this morning.

(Mr. Karunanidhi was reacting to a statement made yesterday by the BJP State president, C.P. Radhakrishnan, that the party would support a Bill to protect all animals against slaughter.)

`Police abetted mob action'

Mr. Karunanidhi accused the police of having abetted a mob of agitators, which tried to block the Madurai-Paramakudi national highway at Muthanendhal, hours before his convoy was to pass that way last evening. "The route was changed to avert a clash. Thousands of cadres were travelling with me, while the protesters were only in their hundreds. The attempt to organise the protest was instigated by a group and we took a diversion to avoid confrontation."

Asked why he did not visit the village of the slain DMK leader, T. Kiruttinan, to pay homage, Mr. Karunanidhi said the kin of the former Minister did not like his going there. "Kiruttinan's samadhi is in my heart."

On judgments being reserved in important cases, he preferred to "reserve" his comments.

To a question on some minority organisations opposing a proposed visit by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad international secretary, Pravin Togadia, to Tamil Nadu, he said the DMK was not for it. "Everybody is free to visit any place in a democratic country. It is the responsibility of the Government to ensure that there is no violence during the visit of such leaders."

The DMK general council would take a decision on future alliances of the party. "It is the desire of the Congress and Left parties that we come out of the BJP alliance."

Mr. Karunanidhi said the party workers were upbeat all over the State and expressed the hope that the DMK election fund target of Rs. 25 crores would be achieved.

Factions close ranks

For the first time in the recent past, the Stalin and Azhagiri factions in the DMK closed ranks at an election fund-raising meeting here today.

Though some leaders, including the former Speaker, P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan, kept away, the visit by the party president, M. Karunanidhi, brought cheers to the cadres.

Uneasy calm prevailed in the DMK here after the May 20 murder of the senior functionary, T. Kiruttinan, who was considered a confidant of the former Chennai Mayor. The differences aggravated with the arrest of M. K. Azhagiri and some of his staunch supporters in connection with the murder. However, today's meeting witnessed a ``togetherness'' of leaders of both the camps.

The district committee, unlike as on earlier occasions, ensured that all advertisements and hoardings had pictures of both Mr. Stalin and Mr. Azhagiri.

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