DMK: Palaniswami's remarks on Karunanidhi do not behove a CM

K Palasniswami

Salem (Tamil Nadu): The DMK Tuesday hit out at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palasniswami for alleging that late DMK President M Karunanidhi was kept under "house arrest" by M K Stalin and said such remarks do not behove a CM.

Senior DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP Trichy Siva said Palaniswami's remarks amounted to "crossing the limits" and questioned why the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa was not taken abroad for medical treatment.

Further, he said Stalin has risen to be the party chief by his hard work and that the party has accepted him. "There can be criticism of a person which is a democratically accepted one. Stalin need not struggle to become president...he is party chief due to hard work. Our party has accepted him. Saying that (Karunanidhi) was kept under house arrest is crossing the limits," he said. Such remarks did not suit someone holding the post of chief minister, he told reporters.

On Monday, at an election meeting in the Nilgiris, the chief minister had alleged that Karunanidhi was kept under "house-arrest" for two years before his death and that he could have been taken abroad for treatment. He had indicated the AIADMK government could launch a probe into it by virtue of Karunanidhi being a former chief minister.

"Karunanidhi is a former chief minister...he was not given proper treatment and put under house arrest by Stalin because he thought he cannot become party chief if his father did well," Palaniswami had said.

DMK workers "say Karunanidhi would have talked if he had been taken abroad and given better treatment. So Stalin kept his father under house arrest for his own selfish interests," he had charged. He had also asked why Stalin was not made party chief when Karunanidhi was alive, and pointed out that the DMK chief came to the present post only after his father's demise. Taking strong exception to Palaniswami's statement, Siva said the DMK workers were unable to stomach them.

"Regarding the medical treatment given to our leader (Karunanidhi), at all times the doctors who examined him had issued statements (bulletins). Till his last moments, people, including well known leaders, visited him." "But who met Jayalalithaa (when she was hospitalised for 75 days in 2016)...why did not you take her abroad for better treatment?" Siva asked.

While Jayalalithaa passed away on December 5, 2016, Karuanidhi breathed his last on August 7, 2018. Monday's statement from Palaniswami appeared to be a tit for tat to the repeated assertions by Stalin of a fresh probe into Jayalalithaa's death if the DMK came to power. In his Lok Sabha election campaigns, Stalin has been saying that such a probe would 'unravel' the facts behind her death to Jayalalithaa's true followers.

The Justice Arumugaswamy Commission constituted by the AIADMK government is currently probing the circumstances leading to demise of Jayalalithaa.

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