PM under Lokpal: Not afraid of anything, says MK

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posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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CHENNAI: DMK chief M Karunanidhi has clarified his stand on the Lokpal Bill by supporting the inclusion of the Prime Minister unde..

CHENNAI: DMK chief M Karunanidhi has clarified his stand on the Lokpal Bill by supporting the inclusion of the Prime Minister under its purview. He sought to allay speculations over the DMKCongress alliance by stating that his stance on the Prime Minister's inclusion was in line with the rationale of the PM himself on the matter. "When I say I support the inclusion of the PM under the Lokpal Bill, I say so on the basis that we have nothing to be afraid of and that such a move would only serve to establish to the world that we are of clear intentions," he said. "It is on the same basis that the PM himself had said he was not opposed to the inclusion of his office under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill," he added.
Clearing the air on his party's ties with the Congress, Karunanidhi said, "I would like to reiterate that we will lend a hand to our allies and give a voice to rights." Karunanidhi's clarification of his stand on the matter comes after days of speculation over his ambivalent statements. Karunanidhi had written a letter in DMK mouthpiece *Murasoli* on June 9.

In it, he noted that his government had passed an anticorruption legislation in 1973. Stopping short of making any comment on the matter, Karunanidhi had simply noted that the Chief Minister too had been included in that legislation.

The DMK leader also took the opportunity to criticise newpaper and media houses that had come to the conclusion that he supported the PM's inclusion under the Lok Pal Bill, even as he took the same stand. He also steered around criticising Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's recent statement that she was against bringing the PMunder the ambit of the Lokpal Bill.

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