LTTE tops TN assembly opposition agenda

Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK Wednesday talked of completing the Sethusamudram shipping canal project and investments, but the opposition AIADMK would have none of it and began the assembly’s winter session with a walkout on the government’s failure to curb the Tigers.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was on top of the opposition agenda. But ignoring the opposition, the DMK government talked of completing the shipping canal, investments, infrastructure and a welfare board for the transgender community.

When Governor S.S. Barnala rose for his customary address to the house, AIADMK leader O. Paneerselvam demanded the dismissal of Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s government for ‘failing to curb Tamil Tiger activities’.

Reading from a protest statement, Paneerselvam, who is the deputy leader of the AIADMK in the assembly, noted that the chief minister had written to LTTE political wing secretary S.P. Tamilselvan, killed last month, and the government’s public relations department had circulated it to the media.

Pointing out that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had warned India of LTTE infiltration, he alleged: ‘LTTE men have free run of the state’.

The AIADMK then staged a walkout, boycotting the governor’s address. The governor said in his address: ‘This government urges the union government not to go back on its endeavour (the Sethusamudram canal) to transform the future of people of Tamil Nadu to one of progress and prosperity, and to continue with implementation of this unique and constructive project.’

The central government should not ‘pay heed to the untenable and contradictory arguments, now raised by a few, for political gains’, he cautioned.