Chennai: Affirming the DMK’s commitment to ensure a fair delimitation that would not bring down the State’s percentage of representation in Lok Sabha below the present 7.18, the party Deputy General Secretary and leader in Parliament Kanimozhi Karunanidhi said her party would not attend the all-party meeting of MPs, presided over by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Saturday.
Declaring that there was nothing new to discuss on the delimitation issue now, she said, in a statement on Saturday, that it was DMK president M K Stalin who warned about delimitation first and called all parties for a meeting to oppose it, besides passing a resolution in the Assembly. He also organized a meeting of various Chief Ministers and party leaders in different States to seek a fair delimitation.
It was Stalin who protested against the BJP bringing the Bill on delimitation, she said, recalling his black shirt protest during the Assembly election campaign.
When there had been no official announcement by the Union Government that the delimitation Bill would be passed in the current session of Parliament what was the need for the meeting and what was there to discuss, she asked. The DMK had already conveyed Tamil Nadu’s position through the resolutions passed in the all-party meeting held earlier, she said.
The DMK stood firm on that position always and what purpose would the meeting presided over by the Chief Minister now serve, she said and wanted to know what the State government’s stand was on the Cauvery issue when protests were on all over the State.
The meeting to discuss delimitation was only a political drama, aimed at distracting the people from the fight for Cauvery water and demand to not allow the construction of Mekedatu dam by Karnataka, she said.
She said DMK party general secretary had clarified through a statement on Friday that the DMK would participate in the all-party meeting only if an all-party meeting was convened to discuss the Mekedatu dam issue that was more important for the State.
If the State government was truly concerned about the State’s rights over Cauvery water and the delta farmers, then representatives of the Tamil Nadu government should come forward to personally present the resolution passed in the Assembly against the Mekedatu dam to the Union Minister of Water Resources along with the members of parliament.
Will the Chief Minister send his party representatives on behalf of the Tamil Nadu government to present the petition to the Union Minister, she asked.
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