Chennai:
The DMK has challenged the Chennai Police's denial of permission to hold a public meeting in the city on Sunday as part of its Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO). The Madras High Court will hear the party's petition on the issue today.
Earlier, in a setback to DMK chief Karunanidhi's attempts to revive the defunct TESO, the Chennai Police had denied it permission for a public meeting in the city on Sunday. The police had cited eleven reasons for denying permission including lack of adequate space at the venue, including disturbance to the Royapettah Government Hospital nearby, traffic congestion and a possible law and order situation.
Earlier on Friday, the Centre had asked organisers to remove the word Eelam from the conference title, which refers to the creation of separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka. Although the DMK chief had earlier harped on that only Eelam would solve the Lankan Tamils crisis, he backtracked later by saying the conference would focus only on livelihood issues of the displaced Lankan Tamils. This dilution of stand came after the then Home Minister P Chidambaram reportedly briefed him on the implications.
UPA's senior leaders and Union Cabinet Ministers Sharad Pawar and Farooq Abdullah were scheduled to participate in a conclave in Chennai on Sunday as part of the TESO programme.
Around 40,000 to one lakh Lankan Tamil civilians are estimated to have been killed in the final phase of the war against the LTTE. Sri Lanka is already quite miffed with India for voting against the country at the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year. India had supported the US sponsored resolution seeking credible investigations into allegations of violations.
Political analysts say this could not have come at a worse time for the DMK. After a huge defeat in the Tamil Nadu assembly polls the DMK chief they say was consolidating his vote bank by using the Tamil card to improve his party's tally in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.