Dr.Subramanian Swamy's Press Release dt 24.02.04

1. I congratulate Congress MP (13th Lok Sabha) Mr.Lakshman Singh for revolting against the pro-LTTE alliance of his party with DMK, and to Dr.Najma Heptullah for denouncing Sonia Gandhi. The Congress Party needs to be rescued from the grip of the pro-LTTE Italian mafia.

2. I condemn the attack by the DMK and PMK hooligans on cine actor Rajnikant followers merely for showing black flags at their Convention yesterday. This violence reveals once again the sick totalitarian mentality of pro-LTTE parties that should be opposed by all nationalist patriotic forces in the interest of democracy and national integrity.

The DMK led alliance appears bankrupt of ideas, and instead is seeking to make an artificial distinction between Advani and Vajpayee. Both are willing soldiers of the RSS, and merely acting out RSS instructions. If Karunanidhi was so naive not know this, how can he be trusted with authority of office? Having lost his Dravidian chastity by eating Kolakattai given by Hindu Munnani leaders, he cannot complain now.

3. The AIPJD decision to join together with Janata Party and contest on the JP symbol of ‘chakra haldar’ in Karnataka in the forth coming elections is a beginning of Janata Parivar (family) consolidation to revive the spirit of 1977 once again.

I will be in Bangalore again tonight to take the process further to consult with S.R.Bommai and V.J.Mallya to form a Janata Front in the state which can provide a secular patriotic alternative to Congress. I am hoping that other 1977 Janata Party break-away groups at the national level will sink their differences and join in furthering this noble cause. In this connection I am in touch with Chandrashekhar and Deve Gowda.

4. I demand that the Union Government immediately reveal full facts behind the mysterious trip of Congress leader Eduardo Falerio to Jaffna and Killinochi. In Jaffna, Falerio went to the local Hindu temple twice to meet emissaries from LTTE supremo V.Prabhakaran and hand over a letter from Ms.Sonia Gandhi. It is now essential that the Tamil people of Sri Lanka defeat all the candidates put up by the LTTE in the forthcoming Parliamentary elections stated for April 2nd, if the Tamil people want India to play a role in persuading the Sri Lanka Government to give Tamils justice and of equality in law.

5. The BJP-led NDA union government while wilting and squirming under US pressure to talk with Pakistan on Kashmir should be condemned for failing to demand that Indian pilgrims be given free access to visit and pray at Mother (Ma) Sharda Temple in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

I am pained to learn that the union caretaker government has on the Prime Minister’s instruction deleted this item from the Agenda for talks decided recently at Foreign Secretary’s level in Islamabad.

Ma Sharda Temple was consecrated by Adi Sankara during his padayatra to Kashmir circa 600 BC. It is considered holiest of the holy temples for Hindu worshippers of Sharda Devi. During my recent visit to Sringeri Ashram, His Holiness Jagadguru Shankaracharya of the Sringeri Mutt encouraged me to take up this cause.

I have written therefore to President Musharaff urging him to allow, as a gesture, Hindu pilgrims to travel freely to PoK and pray at Ma Sharda Temple. Last year in January when I met President Musharaff in Islamabad he had agreed to release at my request 400 fishermen (from Gujarat) and 22 Sikh youths (from Haryana) as a gesture to the Indian people. I hope he will similiarly oblige me on Ma Sharda Temple issue. I will pursue this matter till it is acceded to.

It may be recalled that it was Chinese leader Deng Xiao ping who on my request in 1981 permitted Hindus to go on pilgrimage to Kailash Manasarovar. I became the first pilgrim after 25 years of the ban, to go and bathe in Manasarovar lake and have darshan of Kailash mountain. Since then every year 500 Hindu pilgrims from India visit the holy spot.

6. I shall participate in a special puja to be held by Muthuramalinga Thevar’s family members in Pasumpon on February 26th. I have been invited in recognition of my efforts in installing the statue of the Thevar in Parliament House.

(SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY)