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New government too will be unstable, says Karunanidhi

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said any alternate government formed at the Centre, in the event of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government falling, will not be able to guarantee stability.

Talking to newspersons at the state secretariat in Madras, he reiterated his earlier stand that elections to the Lok Sabha seemed inevitable and were "round the corner".

Admitting that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam might have a number of political differences with the BJP, he said if the BJP-led government fell he would regret the spectre of instability which had come to haunt the country's polity. It was necessary to give any government its due tenure to implement developmental programmes for the welfare of the people, he added.

Asked about the performance of the Vajpayee government after its first 100 days in office, he quipped that he had nothing to add than the criticism made by some of the BJP's coalition partners.

Karunanidhi declined to comment on Congress president Sonia Gandhi's remark that her party would not hesitate to form a new government at the Centre in the event of the fall of the BJP-led coalition government.

Asked to comment on the offer of support by Mulayam Singh Yadav, Laloo Prasad Yadav, former prime minister H D Devegowda and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu to the Congress to form an alternative government at the Centre, Karunanidhi said the issue needed to be discussed at the United Front meeting.

He said: "Individual leaders might express their views and choices, but a collective decision will be taken only at the UF meeting." The DMK, TMC, Janata Dal and the left parties were very much part of the UF, he added.

He reiterated his appeal to Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav to reconsider their criticism of the United Front.

On senior BJP leader K L Sharma expressing concern over the law and order situation in Tamil Nadu, the chief minister said it was surprising that the BJP was exercised over the situation in the state which was far better than what was prevailing in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the BJP often claimed to put into effect ethical norms in politics. Why then it was unable to observe these norms while commenting about Tamil Nadu, he wondered.

UNI

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