Congress distances itself from DMK feud

The government seeks to distance itself from the removal of Dayananidhi Maran from the Union Cabinet, reports Shekhar Iyer.

A day after the Congress described the DMK family feud as an “internal affair” of the party and said that it would not affect the ruling UPA, the government sought to distance itself from the removal of Dayananidhi Maran from the Union Cabinet.

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Parliamentary Affairs Minister P.R. Dasmunsi said it is for the coalition partners to decide on their nominees. “It was an arrangement by the coalition partners as to who will be in the government and who will not be.”

He cited the instance of Shiv Sena replacing Suresh Prabhu with Anant Geete in the Vajpayee government when NDA was in power.

Meanwhile, AIADMK MPs on Monday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to dismiss the DMK government in Tamil Nadu alleging that there was “total failure” of law and order and anarchy in the state.

They handed a memorandum to the PM that recalled the May 9 attack on the Dinakaran office in which three persons were killed and said no culprit has been arrested so far.

The AIADMK also filed a PIL in Madurai bench of Madras High Court seeking appointment of a “body of persons” to monitor law and order in Tamil Nadu's southern districts where “government machinery has been paralysed due to interference by the chief minister’s son, M K Azhagiri.”