PATNA: The former chief minister of Tamil Nadu Mr M Karunanidhi stole the limelight with his devastating wit and biting sarcasm. Mr Raj Mohan Gandhi translated the DMK president’s speech from English to Hindi with telling pauses.
His speech went like this before I proceed with my speech I would like to introduce myself. My name is Karunanidhi. 1am an anti-national. I have passed information to other foreign countries. Therefore I am a dangerous person in this country.
Dear brothers and sisters there are the ties conferred on me by the great patriot and freedom-fighter who spent many years in jail in Andamans along with Lok Manya Bal Gangadhar Tilak and others. Who is that great patriot? He is none else than Rajiv Gandhi and his yes-man Chandra Shekhar.
But I confess that I have no relations whatsoever with Italy. I have never been to Switzerland. I don’t have an account in a Swiss Bank. I have never met and dined with the notorious arms-smuggler Adnan Khashoggi. Yet I am called an anti-national.
My age s 67 but the age of my public service is 53. But Rajiv Gandhi and his political girlfriend in Tamil Nadu whose public lives are not even 10 years old call me anti-national.
I have courted imprisonment 20 times for public causes. But those who have seen prison only in cinemas and video movies call me anti-national and it is a pity that Chandra Shekhar has also accepted this He did so because he was acting as the benami on Rajiv Gandhi.
People of Tamil Nadu voted my party to power for a period of five years. But within two years the minority government of Chandra Shaker aborted it. They aborted the government of Assam headed by our friend Mohanta. They also aborted the DMK and the Janata Dal coalition government in Pondicherry. I think Rajiv Gandhi and Chandra Shekhar are experts in the art of abortions.
But before they could abort the government of Laloo Prasad Yadav they both were aborted.
Now the time has come to dismiss those who dismissed duly elected governments from public memory and throw them into the dustbins of history. We are all united here by the bonds of social justice and secularism.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 29, 1991
