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PMK will continue to support LTTE: Ramadoss

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI JULY 11. The Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) will continue to support the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and there is no change in its stand, the party founder leader, S. Ramadoss, said here today.

Addressing mediapersons, he said the ban on the LTTE had been there for many years and political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the PMK, were for lifting it. Their demand did not mean these parties were anti-national. He cited the Madras High Court's permission to P. Nedumaran to organise a conference in support of the Sri Lankan Tamils and the LTTE. Trying to invoke the provisions of the POTA even for supporting the LTTE was against the freedom of speech guaranteed in the Constitution, he claimed.

Describing the arrest of Vaiko as nothing but ``misuse'' of POTA, he said it was a diversionary tactic by the AIADMK Government as it had failed miserably on all fronts. ``The Chief Minister should at least listen to the advice of her `political guru', DK leader, K. Veeramani, who opposed using the Act for political vendetta,'' he added.

Action urged against `defectors'

Dr. Ramadoss urged the Speaker, Kalimuthu, to take suo motu action against two PMK MLAs, Sivakami and Velmurugan, who had openly dissociated themselves from the party. He said the Speaker, in his reply to the party's earlier letter, had said that he could not interfere as it was purely an internal affair of the party. Now that these two MLAs had openly announced that they had resigned from the party and that they were no longer PMK MLAs, the Speaker should take action against them under the anti-defection law. He hoped that the Speaker would immediately disqualify them as members of the Assembly. If he failed to do so, the party would be forced to go to court, he said.

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