Date:07/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/07/stories/2008100754400400.htm

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

DMK must quit UPA if Centre fails to act: BJP

Special Correspondent

No point in sending telegrams: Raja

COIMBATORE: The Bharatiya Janata Party wants the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) to quit the United Progressive Alliance Government if the Centre does not take up the cause of the Tamils in Sri Lanka with its government.

The State government should impress upon the Centre the need to ask the Sri Lankan government to put an end to the attacks on innocent Tamils, Bharatiya Janata Party’s State vice-president H. Raja told presspersons here on Monday.

There was no point in sending telegrams to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr. Raja said, referring to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s call to people to send telegrams to Dr. Singh to demand steps to end the killing of Tamils.

The DMK was a part of the government at the Centre. The party should come out of it if it could not persuade the Centre to deal decisively with the situation in Sri Lanka, he said.

When the BJP was in power in 2002, the then External Affairs Minister was deputed to Sri Lanka when the situation turned bad for the Tamils. Therefore, every effort must be made at the level of the governments to protect the lives of the Tamils, Mr. Raja said.