National

"The People's Court Is Bigger Than The Legislature Or Judiciary"

While other parties in the state are yet to formalise their alliances, Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the 72-year-old former chief minister of Tamil Nadu and the president of the DMK, has lost no time in severing uncomfortable partnerships and taking the lead

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"The People's Court Is Bigger Than The Legislature Or Judiciary"
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The DMK has no representation in the Lok Sabha, it will become a nonentity in the Rajya Sabha soon and has a lone representation in the assembly. And you are talking of forming a new government in a few months?

This situation reminds us that the people's court is bigger than the courts of the legislature or the judiciary.

Your political opponents are hinting at a DMK-Congress alliance.

It is a calculated smear campaign to tarnish the image of the Kazhagam. The unreliable behaviour of the Congress following the 1980 alliance and the subsequent developments within the Congress, have created an unbridgeable gap and there is no question of any alliance.

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Why did the DMK's relations with some parties turn sour?

Right from the days of our founder C. N. Annadurai, the party's policy is to evolve an electoral seat adjustment with the other political parties on the basis of a common pro-gramme of defeating the ruling party. We were never in favour of a coalition government. Electoral alliance is different from going infor a coalition government. The DMK feels that the people of Tamil Nadu will never prefer a collaboration government. The DMK believes in alliances and not in coalition.

The special resolution on the language question marks a major departure from the usual demand that Hindi shall not be imposed on non-Hindi speaking people. Why did it take such a long time to arrive at this conclusion?

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The special resolution, which we have been pursuing for three decades, demands that all Indian languages should be made national languages; if it is not possible to do so immediately, at least Tamil—a language which is distinctly different from the Indo-Aryan languages—should be made the official language of the country in order to preserve the notion of representation. But on the other hand, Hindi is being pushed aggressively. So we have demanded the status of an official language for Tamil.

Is the DMK striving for an alternative like the NF?

At this juncture, the DMK prefers to refrain from participating in national politics. The north Indian leaders come together during the elections. They do not have any cohesion or organisation once they come to power and lack the discipline to provide a steady government. They very easily dump dependable partners without any sense of remorse. The DMK played a vital role in the formation of the Janata government in 1977. But the moment they came to power, they switched loyalties and formed an alliance with the AIADMK. In 1980, Indira Gandhi tendered an apology for the emergency excesses and formed an alliance with the DMK. Out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats, the combine won 38. But in the subsequent assembly elections, they betrayed the DMK. Then came V.P. Singh. A wonderful, straightforward man. The National Front was launched under his stewardship in Madras and the DMK's stellar role in the formation of the NF is well known. But people like NTR, Biju Patnaik, Ram Vilas Paswan and Deve Gowda tried to bring in the corrupt Jayalalitha's party into the NF fold. The ridiculousness of this position of the NF leaders forced the DMK to leave the Front. In this scenario, we have to be extremely cautious in formulating our policy for national politics.

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