‘LTTE is a terrorist outfit and Prabhakaran its leader’

Less than 24 hours after claiming that LTTE chief V Prabhakaran was his best friend and not a terrorist, DMK president and Tamil Nadu chief minister Kalaignar M Karunanidhi has done a U-turn in what his critics call an “artistic flip flop”, given that his title, Kalaignar, stands for artiste. Karunanidhi said an anti-DMK TV channel had “misquoted” him in its exclusive interview.

“What I said was that LTTE did not start as a Naxalite or terrorist outfit to wreak havoc, but as an ideological movement for a separate Tamil Eelam. However, of late they have adopted terrorist tactics, which I don’t approve or support. Prabhakaran is the leader of a terrorist outfit and I’ve been misquoted by the English TV channel,” Karunanidhi said on Monday even as opposition parties began to beat him with a readymade stick he provided them.

“The channel is anti-DMK and has intentionally twisted my statements without telecasting the full text of what I said to create confusion in the minds of people. I will continue to call for an end to the war in Sri Lanka and I cannot forget the Sriperambudur incident resulting in the unfortunate death of Rajiv Gandhi. In fact, my government has named the OMR (old Mahabalipuram Road) after Rajiv Gandhi,” he said. On his comment that he would grieve were Prabhakran to die, he said, “I grieve every death.”

The AIADMK and its allies did not let go of a chance to criticise Karunanidhi, calling his action vote bank politics. “Karunanidhi is making such statements out of mere political compulsions. On the one hand he needs to appease his vote bank and on the other he has to please his national ally, the Congress,” CPI’s North Chennai candidate D Pandian said.