MDMK walks out of NDA on Centre's stand on state issues

The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) today announced the party's decision to quit the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The party headed by V Gopalsamy (also known as Vaiko) said they were dissatisfied with the Centre's stand on Sri Lankan Tamils, sharing of river waters with Karnataka, Kerala, and the Centre's policies related to economic development and language.

A high-level committee of the party today passed a resolution to this effect at a meeting held in Chennai. In a statement, the party said, at the time of joining hands (before the Lok Sabha election) with the NDA, MDMK had made it clear the Centre should not support Sri Lanka and its President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

However, he alleged the Narendra Modi-led government had gone against the earlier promise and started supporting the Rajapaksa government.

Reflecting the stand of the BJP, he questioned the party of remaining silent when one its leaders, Subramanian Swamy, said Rajapaksa should be honoured with the Bharat Ratna.

Vaiko is known to be an ardent supporter of the LTTE and is against the Centre building ties with the Mahinda Rajapaksa-led government in Sri Lanka.

The MDMK also stated the Centre was betraying the interests of Tamil Nadu on the Mullaperiyar dam issue in Kerala and sharing of Cauvery river water with Karnataka. He also complained the Centre had failed to help the fishing community in Tamil Nadu.

Of late, Vaiko has been attacking the Centre and the Prime Minister on various issues.

BJP leader Subramanian Swamy had openly stated the MDMK should be thrown out of the NDA alliance. On Monday, Swamy tweeted saying, "Has MDMK walked out yet or do I have to throw them out?".

Last week, another senior leader of the BJP, H Raja targeted Vaiko, saying he "may not be able to return home safely" if he continued to criticise the PM.

Vaiko later reacted saying Modi should have condemned the remarks and wondered why the PM was silent on it. He added, that in the past, he had criticised leaders like late MG Ramachandran, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi besides DMK chief Karunanidhi but none of them had issued threats "like these BJP leaders".