We will counter AIADMK highhandedness: Stalin

By M.R. Venkatesh

CHENNAI, JUNE 2. There was no hype, not even the usual slogans, or the air of authority as the Chennai Mayor and the DMK's youth wing leader, Mr. M.K. Stalin, presided over a meeting of its functionaries here today. But his approach to issues was so markedly different, signalling an extrovert stance in facing the new grim political reality.

As the DMK is coming to grips with post-poll issues, Mr. Stalin, significantly, sent a reassuring message to the party leadership that they will not be found wanting in countering the ``political duplicity and highhandedness'' of the AIADMK regime. Still recovering from the aftershocks of the poll verdict, Mr. Stalin, in the first meeting of the DMK's youth wing district organisers and their deputies from all over the State, came up with a sober and realistic assessment of the party's performance and ended on a ``let-bygones-be-bygones'' note.

Amidst the widespread perception within the party that internal dissensions had been one of the key reasons for its defeat, besides the ``sympathy'' for the AIADMK chief, Ms. Jayalalitha, following her ``false propaganda'' that the DMK Government was behind the rejection of her nomination papers, Mr. Stalin conceded that it was now time for an ``internal balancing.''

Mr. Stalin was quite candid in saying that the poll outcome was really unexpected for the DMK. Even ``impartial observers'' and intelligence reports had put the chances for the DMK-led front at a minimum of more than 100 seats, he noted. There was no general resentment against the DMK Government either, he argued.

Though the AIADMK had fashioned a ``huge alliance,'' the DMK had to respond to that situation, Mr. Stalin said, adding he did not think that the DMK-led alliance was weak in that respect. The margins in several constituencies were ``quite thin,'' he pointed out.

Then the meeting's focus turned to the immediate fallout of the verdict for the DMK and its allies. Condemning the ``repression'' unleashed by the AIADMK regime, the arrests of the former Deputy Speaker, Mr. Parithi Ilamvazhuthi, the former DMK MP, Mr. Parasuraman, and some others including the TMC-DF MLA, Mr. B. Ranganathan, on ``trumped-up'' charges, the youth wing in a resolution warned that they would not take such ``political atrocities'' lying down. ``The youth cadres are ready to make any sacrifice,'' it stated.

Asked if the poll outcome was a setback to the DMK, Mr. Stalin, in an informal chat with reporters later, said the party was used to both victories and defeats.

On how the DMK's youth wing reacted to the prospect of its leader being arrested now, Mr. Stalin said there was no case against him as yet. ``Only a complaint has been given and I am ready to face it in the courts,'' he said. Meanwhile, the DMK's agriculture wing in a resolution urged the Government to give up its move to close down the ``non-functional uzhavar sandhais,'' as the AIADMK's decision was based on ``political animosity.''

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