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Tamil Nadu CM Stalin to meet President Kovind in Delhi today
A senior DMK leader said that the President is likely to be invited to unveil a portrait of Stalin’s late father and five-time Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi in the Tamil Nadu Assembly
Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin will be meeting President Ramnath Kovind in Delhi on Monday, which the government termed “courtesy call”.
A senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader, not wishing to be named, said that the President is likely to be invited to unveil a portrait of Stalin’s late father and five-time Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.
Stalin reached Delhi on Sunday. This is his second visit to the national capital after taking charge as chief minister of the souther state on May 7. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 17 and submitted a list of 25 demands, which included the release of the seven prisoners convicted in the 1991 Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
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Stalin is also likely to take this issue up with the President, to whom he had also written a letter in May requesting him to remit the sentence and expedite the release of the seven persons imprisoned for over three decades. Stalin has permitted a two-month long parole for one of the convicts, AG Perarivalan, on medical grounds. All regional parties in Tamil Nadu support the release of the prisoners, who are currently serving a life sentence.
In 2018, the Tamil Nadu Cabinet passed a unanimous resolution for the release of all seven prisoners in the case; the resolution was sent to Governor Banwarilal Purohit for his assent. During a case hearing in the Supreme Court on Perarivalan’s remission, an affidavit submitted noted that Purohit was awaiting a report of the multi-disciplinary monitoring agency of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to make his decision. But in subsequent hearings, the CBI clarified that there is no connection between the remission of the sentence and investigation. The apex court also termed the governor’s delay as “extraordinary”. However, in February this year, Purohit refrained from taking a call on the matter and said that the President was the competent authority to make this decision.
