Sri Lankan Tamils row: DMK's Karunanidhi withdraws support to UPA government
Party supremo M Karunanidhi today withdrew DMK's support to the UPA alliance, pulling out its five central ministers over the issue of alleged human rights violations of Sri Lankan Tamils.
However, the Congress-led UPA government said there was no threat to its stability.
Karunanidhi while announcing the party's decision ending its nine-year long association with the UPA, however, kept a window open of returning to the alliance, saying it was ready to reconsider it if Parliament adopts a resolution before March 21 incorporating the two amendments he had suggested to be moved on the US-backed resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission(UNHRC).
Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who was part of the team of three central ministers which met Karunanidhi to try to placate him on his demands yesterday, asserted there is no crisis and that Government enjoyed majority and it was "absolutely stable".
DMK has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha and the strength of the ruling alliance has reduced to 224 after its pull out but UPA enjoyed the support of 281 MPs that included those of outside supporting parties. Samajwadi Party(22) and BSP(21) were among the outside supporters(57) in the House where the magic number for a majority is 272.
After chairing an emergency meeting of TESO, a pro-Tamil organisation revived by him last year, a combative Karunanidhi charged the Mamnohan Singh government with not only allowing 'watering down' of the US resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC but also not even considering any of DMK's suggested amendments to that resolution.
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