Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has assured that his DMK MPs will not insist on quitting parliament in the wake of the talks between New Delhi and Colombo on the civilian suffering in Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday.
"Karunanidhi has assured (me) that the DMK will not precipitate the issue," Mukherjee said after a three-hour meeting with him here.
A meeting of the DMK and its allies this month resolved that all MPs from Tamil Nadu will resign if India failed to convince Sri Lanka to call off its military offensive against the Tamil Tigers. Tamil Nadu leaders say the fighting has seriously affected Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka's north.
Earlier in the day, Mukherjee held talks with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's advisor Basil Rajapaksa in New Delhi.
"India will not insist on a ceasefire betwen the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) as we are not signatories to the ceasefire agreement. Attempts will be made to ensure a resolution of the issue through peaceful political process and negotiations," Mukherjee said.
As the two-week ultimatum to the Centre urging it to take steps to ensure ceasefire in Sri Lanka to prevent attacks on the ethnic Tamils neared, DMK President and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday said he would not create a crisis for the Congress-led UPA government by submitting resignations of MPs from the state.
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After the long meeting with AICC President Sonia Gandhi's emissary and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Mr Karunanidhi said Mukherjee had requested him not to precipitate the issue.
Karunanidhi said Mukherjee had requested that him that if he pressed for resignation of MPs there will be several other complicatons in the Indian political scenario.
"So, he asked us to defer the decision and I gave him that assurance," Karunanidhi said.
When asked whether he would forward the resignation letters given by the DMK MPs to the Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman, Mr Karunanidhi, evading a direct reply, said the External Affairs Minister had explained what had happened today (the meeting with Sri Lankan envoy Basil Rajapakse at New Delhi).
''You can draw your own conclusions,'' the Chief Minister said, giving enough indications that there was no need to forward the resignation letters of DMK MPs who had put in their post-dated
papers after the all-party meeting on October 14 which discussed the attacks on Sri Lankan Tamils.
The meeting served a two-week ultimatum to the Centre to intervene and bring a ceasefire in the island nation.
The decision to withdraw all the MPs from Tamil Nadu was taken at the all-party meeting.
''Some parties seem to have a second thought on it. We too have second thoughts,'' he said.
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