DMK threatens to pull out of UPA

Triggering a fresh crisis for the UPA government, the DMK, a key constituent of the coalition, on Friday threatened to pull out if the Centre did not meet the party’s expectations on the resolution being tabled against Sri Lanka at the ongoing United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meeting in Geneva.

In a late night statement in Chennai, DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi said though “different versions” of the US resolution were doing the rounds, the DMK wanted the government to take “unambiguous steps” to seek changes in the resolution, demanding nothing short of an “independent, international investigation into those specifically identified for being responsible for the genocide of the Tamils in Sri Lanka and insisting on a definitive time-frame for taking action against such persons found guilty of war crimes.”

“If this demand of ours is not fulfilled, I categorically state that there will then be no meaning in the DMK continuing to be part of the Union Cabinet,” Karunanidhi said. The DMK had issued a similar ultimatum before last year’s UNHRC meeting to pressure the Congress to vote against Sri Lanka though the resolution was later diluted.