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By Radha Venkatesan
In a letter to Mr.Vajpayee, a copy of which was released to the media here, she said that Mr. Kannappan should be removed "in the interest of the nation and to uphold the rule of law". The Minister had made speeches in public "rabidly supporting the activities of the LTTE thereby committing an offence under Section 21 (2) and (3) of POTA 2002 and Section 10 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, she said. In a pointed query to the Prime Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa asked if "a Minister of Government of India, while holding office, could violate the provisions of law and support a banned organisation openly.'' Listing out Mr. Kannappan's pro-LTTE remarks, Ms. Jayalalithaa said that he "openly supported" the LTTE in various public meetings and media conferences in the past two months and at a meeting at Coimbatore on July 28, he stated that his party would continue to support the Tamil Tigers and would not be cowed down by the threat of ban from the State Government. It was clear that such speeches were neither "occasional" nor "accidental"; the Minister was "regularly preaching and enlisting support" for the LTTE which has been declared a terrorist organisation under POTA. The Chief Minister also said that a Minister who took oath to enforce law could not "patently and wilfully" violate the provisions of law and "it is impermissible under the scheme of the Constitution". Also, his support for the LTTE "can only mean that he is very close to the organisation". Hence, "it may be possible" that the oath of secrecy he took at the time of being sworn in Minister "is likely to be violated, which is against the interest of the entire country". Asserting that Mr. Kannappan's continued support for the LTTE "disables him from continuing in the office", she said it was high time the Prime Minister intervened and set the matter right. "Otherwise, it will lead to an irreparable situation exposing the country to great danger''. Pointing out that Union Ministers continued at the pleasure of the Prime Minister, she asked Mr. Vajpayee to ``withdraw your pleasure'' and oust Mr. Kannappan. She also forwarded a copy to the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani. Ms. Jayalalithaa's missive comes three weeks after the arrest of the MDMK leader, Vaiko, under POTA and eight other party functionaries and her declared intention to ban the MDMK. Interestingly, Ms. Jayalalithaa has not demanded the ouster of another representative of the MDMK in the Cabinet, the Union Minister of State for Finance, Gingee Ramachandran, who had also professed his support for the LTTE. The State Director-General of Police, B.P. Nailwal, responding to a pointed query on whether a Union Minister could be arrested by the State police, said that the "matter has to be legally examined". However, officials say there "is no legal bar" on arresting a Union Minister under POTA, particularly when he "faces a grave offence". Nonetheless, the Jayalalithaa Government would wait for the Centre's response before resorting to any drastic action.
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