Chennai, March 21: Joining issue with his arch rival and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for dubbing his party's pulling out of UPA coalition as a "drama," DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Wednesday said it was the AIADMK supremo who had made "contradictory" remarks on the matter.
In a letter to party workers a day after announcing withdrawal of support to the Congress-led coalition, Karunanidhi also responded to Jayalalithaa's criticism of his "three-hour fast" on April 4, 2009, demanding ceasefire in Sri Lanka, saying he called off the protest following information from the Centre that hostilities had ceased.
He said that after a meeting of the Sri Lankan Security Council, Colombo had announced "end of war in northern Sri Lanka," based on which then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had issued a statement saying hostilities had ended.
"A copy of that statement was sent to the venue of my fast with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi asking me to end my fast. World countries believed Rajapakse government's announcement of ceasefire; Centre believed it and also gave me confidence.
"Even the US welcomed the ceasefire. I withdrew my protest at noon on the insistence of Central Government and friends from other political parties," he said.
Critics of Karunanidhi, including Jayalalithaa, have often slammed the 88-year-old leader for the fast, with many of them ridiculing him for going on a hunger strike "between breakfast and lunch".
Jayalalithaa yesterday reiterated this while describing as "drama," DMK pulling out of UPA over the Lankan Tamils issue.
Hitting back at her, Karunanidhi said she as Chief Minister in 2002 moved a resolution in the state Assembly calling for extradition of LTTE chief V Prabakaran.
He recalled a statement of hers in 2009 allegedly saying civilian casualty was common in a war and that "Sri Lankan Army did not intend to kill Tamils."
Similarly, she had also taken contradicting stands on the Sethusamudram shipping project, batting for it in 2004 but now demanding that Ram Sethu be declared a national monument, he accused.
It was the same case with the Cauvery River Authority when she had described the then Vajpayee-led body as "toothless," he said.
Karunanidhi said since 1956, DMK has stood by Lankan Tamils and that he had even resigned as MLA besides losing his government on the issue.
