TN Speaker justifies AIADMK protests

tiruchirapalli: tamil nadu assembly speaker and senior aiadmk leader k kalimuthu on wednesday justified the ongoing aiadmk agitation in the state against the supreme court verdict which unseated j jayalalitha from the chief ministership. talking to newsmen here, kalimuthu said under a democratic set-up, such agitations were `unavoidable'. referring to pmk president ramadoss's reported demand that the union government should initiate suitable action against those aiadmk ministers who were participating in the stir, he said the demand was not acceptable. "if ramadoss had remained in the aiadmk front, i doubt very much whether he would have made such a demand. though jayalalitha stepped down following the apex court directive, aiadmk cadres are wondering whether there is any political conspiracy behind the judgment. so, a stir is quite natural under such circumstances," the speaker said. asked about the tamil nadu bjp's opposition to the agitation, kalimuthu said there was nothing surprising about it, as the aiadmk suspected that the vajpayee government had hatched a conspiracy to unseat jayalalitha. referring to dmk president karunanidhi's reported remarks that the burning of effigies of the prime minister and others would amount to contempt of court, he said aiadmk men had never burnt the effigies of supreme court judges or copies of the judgment which was directed against jayalalitha. only if such a thing had happened, contempt of court would arise, he added. jayalalitha had already asked her partymen to stop the ongoing stir. this was clear proof that she wanted to uphold norms in public life, the speaker said.