Karunanidhi blows hot and cold at the Left

Calcutta News.Net
Tuesday 19th August, 2008 (IANS)

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi Tuesday blew hot and cold at Wednesday's day-long Left-sponsored general strike by announcing moral support to it and obliquely referring to the caste of a senior leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist derisively in a statement.

'Though the government will accord moral support to the strike called by the communist parties, essential services like buses will not be affected,' an official press communique said.

In a cryptic poem aimed at the Left and blaming its leaders for letting him down badly, Karunanidhi derisively referred to the Brahmin caste of some of the main CPI-M leaders by saying 'Avaal enraale savaal than' (Brahmins always mean challenges).

Left leaders, however, were amused.

'We have been fighting for an egalitarian society sacrificing more than the CM by keeping away from the trappings of power so blatantly pursued by the DMK and its leader, who alternated between the United Front, UPA (United Progressive Alliance) and NDA (National Democratic Alliance) at different times,' said a communist legislator speaking to IANS requesting anonymity.

'Of course, our principled stand will always pose a challenge to Karunanidhi who sometimes refers to himself as a communist when it suits him,' he said.

The Left had extended an olive branch to the DMK by inviting its president and chief minister karunanidhi to join the proposed national Third Front Friday.

'Political equations have undergone a sea change after 2004 and therefore Karunanidhi should weigh his political options more carefully,' N. Varadarajan, state CPI-M secretary, said on the Independence Day.

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