Southern States
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Kerala
Karunakaran lambasts Antony
By Our Special Correspondent
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 24. The senior Congress leader, K. Karunakaran, today lambasted the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, for his statement implicating partymen in communal clashes in some parts of the State, by stating that Mr. Antony should own the responsibility for it.
Addressing a press conference at his residence, Mr. Karunakaran said that the onus was on the Chief Minister to explain whether the Congress party was involved in the communal clashes.
"The party has a large number of sympathisers. But I am sure party workers would not be involved in these cases. The Chief Minister belongs to the party and if there has been any lapse, then he should own responsibility for it," he said.
Mr. Karunakaran made it clear that there were certain accepted procedures which should have been followed by the Chief Minister. He should have taken the KPCC president into confidence before making the statement.
The matter could have been taken up with the AICC president and the fact should have been brought to her notice as well, he felt.
In reply to a question, he said that the KPCC president had reacted to the issue. Just because a person had been named in the FIR does not mean that he should be involved in a particular case. He had raised this issue only to point out certain lapses in the functioning of Government and these have not been disproved so far, he added.
In reply to another question on the Chief Minister's dissatisfaction with the functioning of his Government, Mr. Karunakaran said: "It is for the Chief Minister to decide what to do about it. But the people are unlikely to forget that I was removed as Chief Minister following baseless charges in the spy case. Prior to that, I had to resign in connection with the High Court reference in the Rajan case as a result of the demand of these people. However, I am not demanding a leadership change," he said.
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