CHENNAI: Taking on the UPA government, Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK today demanded an explanation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram on former Telecom Minister A Raja's charges in 2G spectrum scam of "Himalayan proportions"."The Prime Minister and the Home Minister have not given any reply even days after the former Telecom Minister had named them in connection with the scam of Himalayan proportions," said a resolution adopted at AIADMK Executive Council meeting chaired by party General Secretary Jayalalithaa here.It said the "Congress President and UPA Chairperson has not expressed her opinion," on the issue so far."People have a right to know the truth in this matter. The Executive insists that in deference to people's views, the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the Congress President should immediately reply to Raja's charges," the resolution said.In his deposition before the court early this week, Raja had dragged the Prime Minister and Chidamabaram, the then Finance Minister, in 2G case, saying the issue of sale of equity by spectrum licencees was discussed with them.The resolution comes close on the heels of Jayalalithaa asking her party MPs to take on Congress on a host of issues, including 2G spectrum and spiralling prices of commodities, in Parliament session beginning Monday.Later, speaking to reporters, Jayalalithaa denied DMK President M Karunanidhi's charge that she had unleashed "vendetta politics" against his partymen in the form of land grab cases and said police were acting on "genuine complaints filed by persons with no political backing.""Land grab complaints had been filed during previous DMK regime also by affected persons but no action was taken then.After AIADMK government took over, victims began thronging police stations and seeing cases swelling in this connection, a special cell was formed to handle them," she said."Therefore, this cannot be described as vendetta politics," she said even as several DMK men, including former Minister Veerapandi S Arumugam and some of Union Minister MK Alagiri's aides, have been arrested on land grab charges."We are not avenging anyone. The police are taking action on complaints," she said.Jayalalithaa also denied a charge that M K Stalin was arrested during a protest near Tiruvarur.To a question, she said the Prime Minister, Chidambaram and Sonia Gandhi owed an explanation to the people on Raja's charges on the 2G spectrum allocation scam."It is the people's right to expect a clarification against such allegations when they are levelled against the head of the government (Prime Minister)," she said. On the issue of bringing the Prime Minister under the ambit of the Lokpal Bill, Jayalalithaa reiterated her stand that the PMO should be kept out of the anti-graft legislation but insisted that she was not supporting an individual.She said if the Prime Minister was brought under Lokpal, it will "undermine his authority" and pave way for a "parallel government."On the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, in which connection the Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed a resolution demanding economic sanctions against Colombo after her government took over, she said the Centre had not given any assurance on the matter even as there was a "positive response" from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, when she met her (Jayalalithaa) on July 20.She recalled a US congressional committee voting to ban aid to Sri Lanka unless it showed "accountability" over the 'bloodshed' in the final stages of the conflict in 2009.Her party MPs would take up the issue in Parliament, Jayalalithaa said and referred to a resolution passed in the Assembly seeking to implead the Revenue Department in a private suit filed by her demanding retrieval of Katchatheevu, an islet ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974.Earlier, the party executive adopted several resolutions including lauding the Election Commission of India for conducting free and fair elections and Jayalalithaa for leading AIADMK to an emphatic victory in the April 13 polls against arch rivals DMK.The party also lauded her "statesmanship," in effectively handling the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and said the US Congress had voted for banning aid in the wake of the meeting between her and Hillary Clinton.Other resolutions included demanding Centre to notify the final verdict of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal, demanding 1000 MW from the Central grid till May 2012, rollback of fuel prices by Union government and pressing Centre to ask Kerala to stop constructing a new dam on Mullaperiyar river.The Executive also resolved that the Centre should withdraw the Prevention of Communal and Targeted Violence (Access to Justice and Reparations) Bill, 2011, against which Jayalalithaa had already expressed her concern, saying it could be used against state governments.
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