We brought this upon ourselves: Karunanidhi

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M. Karunanidhi declared here on Saturday that his party would overcome the crisis it faced now. He called upon partymen to work for the resurgence of the DMK instead of embarking on a fault-finding mission with regard to the loss in the Assembly election.

In his opening remarks at the Executive Committee meeting, Mr. Karunanidhi said it was an unquestionable truth that “we brought this situation upon ourselves. And there is no need to look for ways to pin the blame on someone else. I am saying this only because I have realised this. I do not want to hurt anyone by repeatedly harping on this. The party is already hurt by this and, therefore, so am I and everyone else.”

The DMK president said the party could not draw solace from the number of MLAs in the Assembly or MPs in Parliament. “We are starting from zero today in order to heal the wound and for the resurgence of the party.” He recalled how the party bounced back in 1996 after the defeat in the 1991 elections that were held after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The party would rise up again just as it did then. Mr. Karunanidhi lamented that many sections were writing off the DMK because of the defeat in the elections and the media was full of such reports that brought pain to the party cadre. In a veiled reference to the land grabbing cases, Mr. Karunanidhi said some of the party functionaries were being “hounded” by police. “They have still come for this meeting and this only pointed out that this party cannot be wiped out.”

“Veerapandi Arumgham was being hunted now. I had been hunted too. This is not new to us,” he said.

The meeting began at 4.20 p.m. and went on for nearly four hours. Union Fertilizers Minister M.K. Alagiri told waiting media persons that there was nothing to announce now and that decisions on various issues would be spelt out after the General Council on Sunday.

DMK Parliamentary Party leader T.R. Baalu said: “We discussed the present political situation and the false cases of land grabbing that have been filed against our partymen.” Mr. Baalu, however, declined to state what other issues were discussed at the meeting. “The resolutions will be released after the General Council [on Sunday],” he said.

Party leader T.K.S. Elangovan said the anticipated re-structuring of the organisation [party] was discussed. His reply was a “no” to questions on whether the reported rivalry between Mr. Alagiri and his brother and party treasurer M.K. Stalin was discussed and whether a demand was made to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre. Party sources, however, said a call to take a firm view on the alliance was made at the meeting by some leaders.