Eelam is my unfulfilled dream, says Karunanidhi

Chennai: Brushing aside the Centre's reservations, DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Sunday declared that he will strive for a separate Eelam and endorsed the move for applying pressure on the Government for protection of rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka by moving the UN.

In his address at DMK's pro-Eelam TESO conference, Karunanidhi described as his "unfulfilled dream," the birth of a separate homeland for Lankan Tamils, asserting he will continue to pursue it with the help of other stake-holders.

"Let us first apply medicine to those who are injured and we have started doing that with TESO (Tamil Eelam Supporters' Organisation) Conference. Like I have often said there is my unfulfilled dream (of Eelam coming into existence.)

"But I will continue to struggle towards realising that dream taking you all on board," he said. Karunanidhi's remarks come against the backdrop of the Centre expressing reservations in the Madras High Court over using the term Eelam over which it later did a U-turn saying it had no objection to it being used in the conference title.

The Centre had however asked the organisers to ensure the meet does not issue any declaration or outcome calling into question the sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of any foreign country with whom India has diplomatic relations.

Referring to a resolution passed at the TESO conference in Chennai, which called for India to move a resolution in the UN for bestowing full rights to the Tamils in Sri Lanka to decide the political solution themselves, he said, "We need not exert any more pressure other than this."

"This resolution can be used to exert pressure (on the government). That itself is to pressure Government of India," he said in his concluding remarks.

On the Eelam question, he said the immediate job on hand was to apply first-aid on "life threatening wounds" of the Sri Lankan Tamils with a view to save their lives.

He recalled founding TESO in the 1980s and Indian political veterans such as AB Vajpayee and NT Ramarao attending a meeting of the organisation in Madurai in 1986 and extending their support for the Sri Lankan Tamils' cause.