DMK's tolerance not acceptance, says Tiruchi N. Siva, warning rivals of timing

DMK deputy general secretary Tiruchi N. Siva has said his party's restraint towards political rivals should not be read as acceptance, and that it would act when the time was right. He was speaking in Chennai on Friday at the release of a documentary, The Misa Mark, and a book, Misa Vadukkal, by S.K. Sridharan.

Mr. Siva, a Rajya Sabha member, said the DMK had never been afraid or fled, and was merely watching the "bogeyman acts" of some leaders. Tolerance, he said, did not mean the party had accepted such conduct or lacked the capacity to respond. He invoked the words of the late leader Anna to argue that the talented wait for the right moment, adding that the party knew when to raise its arms, and that its voice and actions would then change.

Recalling the Emergency imposed by the Congress government under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Mr. Siva said that while crackdowns occurred in other States, in Tamil Nadu the decision to submit to it was taken by the DMK leadership. He said it was after the Emergency that he chose to follow the path of DMK leader M. Karunanidhi, giving up his ambition of becoming a civil servant.

He also sought to explain Karunanidhi's later welcome to Indira Gandhi's party forming the government, saying the DMK leadership chose to set aside its personal and organisational suffering to ensure a stable government in New Delhi.

Dravidar Kazhagam leader K. Veeramani, who released the book, recalled his conversations with DMK president and former Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in prison during the Emergency. He also remembered an injury he suffered under his left eye in jail, saying he had grown used to the pain.

CPI(M) leader K. Balakrishnan described the current situation under the BJP government as an "undeclared emergency" and stressed the need to document the suffering of party functionaries during the Emergency. He praised Karunanidhi's decision to oppose it even at the cost of the then DMK government. DMK spokesperson T.K.S. Elangovan also recalled the struggles of party workers during that period.

Activist and writer Thiyagu said the Emergency continued to be practised in a different form, pointing to the prolonged detention of activist Umar Khalid under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. He recalled the suffering of former MP and Mayor C. Chittibabu, who died, and former Minister Arcot N. Veerasamy, among others, and contended that the scars individuals bore during the Emergency were scars on society as a whole.