CPI-M leader slams DMK for criticising Left parties

The Tamil Nadu unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) today hit back at the ruling DMK for criticising the Left parties for joining hands with the AIADMK for the coming Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu, ''forgetting the past.'' Reacting to an article in DMK party organ ''Murasoli'' on whether the left parties have forgotten the past memories, CPI(M) state secretary N Varadarajan, in a statement here, hit back at the DMK, stating that the DMK too had forgotten the past, when it forged an alliance with the Congress and the BJP.

''Political memories may remain, but situations have changed, which forced all political parties to take decisions according to the changed circumstances,'' he said and recalled how the DMK had changed its stance in the past to suit to the then political situations.

He said in 1967, the DMK which captured power after fighting against the Congress, ended its five-year term in 1971 to join hands with the very same Congress to face the next elections.

And when the Congress dismissed the DMK government in 1976, during emergency, the left parties, forgetting its differences with the DMK, came to the forefront to protest against the sacking of DMK government and forged ties with DMK in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections.

However, the DMK had accorded a red carpet welcome to the then Prime Minister and Congress leader Indira Gandhi, who had dismissed the DMK government during emergency, stating that she should take the lead and provide a stable government at the Centre. The left parties, at that time, as situation demanded, forced to take an anti-DMK stand, Mr Varadarajan said.

He said speaking at a book release function in 1999, DMK leader M Karunanidhi had made a poignant speech that he would have become a Communist, had he not met his mentors rationalist leader Periyar E V Ramasamy and Dravidian stalwart C N Annadurai.

''But the every next day, he went for an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), forgetting its anti-communal policies,'' Mr Varadarajan pointed out.

-- (UNI) -- 05MS17.xml

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