Karunanidhi Denies Sabotaging Moopanars Chances

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, in an oblique denial of the charge that he had not done enough to support the candidature of G K Moopanar for the prime ministership, yesterday said in the state Assembly The truth will be out.

Replying to the debate on the demands for grants to the industries department, Karunanidhi said the darkness would be dispelled one day, and the truth would come out. Hinting that his conscience was clear on this score, but not that of those who were making the charge against him, the Chief Minister recalled a part of dialogue he had written for a play years ago: It is only when the conscience sleeps that the mind, like a monkey, strays afar.

Karunanidhi expressed the hope that former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, would return to the union ministry. Karunanidhi said Chidambaram, was and will be finance minister of the country. He said a graphite benification project, to purify the graphite available in Sivaganaga, which returned Chidambaram to Lok Sabha, would be set up soon. This would be a boon to the area, which had a deposit of 34.5 lakh tonnes of graphite.

Earlier, S Alagiri, a senior TMC member, brought up the subject by saying he was speaking with a heavy heart over the developments in New Delhi. I am sure the Chief Minister shares our disappointment, he said. Referring to this in his reply, the DMK chief, a key member of the United Front steering committee, said his mentor (late C N Annadurai) had bequeathed to him his strong heart that would bear anything with fortitude. Therefore, nothing would lie heavily on his heart. The Indian National League (INL) leader, M A Latheef, joined the discussion with an appeal to TMC leader G K Moopanar to join the United Front ministry. He commended both Karunanidhi and Moopanar for working together to install a secular government at the Centre, thereby thwarting the ambitions of communal elements Though everybody (in the state) wanted a Tamilian to be the Prime Minister, what was more important from the countrys point of view was that there should be a secular regime, Latheef said.

Moopanar and Karunanidhi were acting in a manner that showed no sign of disunity, Latheef said.