Karunanidhi against President's rule in UP

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President M Karunanidhi on Wednesday expressed reservations about invoking Article 356 in Uttar Pradesh and placing it under President's Rule, but declared his party, a constituent of the United Front at the Centre, would go by the majority view of the Union Cabinet.

Addressing a press conference in Madras, Karunanidhi said his party had consistently opposed the use of Article 356, besides demanding its deletion from the statute book, as the provision was liable to be misused.

Even if Mahatma Gandhi were to be the prime minister, the Article could be misused, Karunanidhi said. He said he did not consider Tuesday's violence in the Uttar Pradesh assembly sufficient ground for imposing President's rule there.

In 1990, Karunanidhi's government was ousted and President's rule imposed on Tamil Nadu. The move was pushed through despite opposition from then Tamil Nadu governor Surjit Singh Barnala.

Asked about reports that Prime Minister I K Gujral had succumbed to pressure from Congress president Sitaram Kesri in recommending imposition of President's rule, Karunanidhi said as the major supporter of the United Front government, there was nothing wrong in the Congress trying to prevail upon Gujral. More so, since the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Congress had split on the eve of the confidence motion there, he said.

Karunanidhi said Gujral had asked him, Tamil Maanila Congress president G K Moopanar and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, on their views on the developments in Uttar Pradesh after the Bahujan Samaj Party withdrew support to the Kalyan Singh government. They had told Gujral that the proper forum to decide the majority of a government was the assembly, Karunanidhi said. He said there was nothing wrong in constituent parties expressing their view in a democracy. But once the decision was taken by the Union Cabinet with a majority, everyone had to go by that.