Karunanidhi flays attempts to politicise youth’s suicide

Criticising attempts to “politicise” the death of K Muthukumaran, a local youth who committed suicide here to express solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Saturday said it could turn the Tamils issue into an instrument of “cheap publicity”.

Drawing the attention towards the incident where mourners at Kolathur, where Muthukumaran’s body had been kept for public homage, had pelted stones at DMK MLA VS Babu, he said “the death of a person who had committed suicide for the Sri Lankan Tamils cause should not be politicised.”

“Those who know me well know how disturbed I am after learning about the death of Muthukumaran,” he said in a release here, adding his party was against encouraging such incidents.

On the state government solatium to Muthukumaran’s parents, “which was turned down by them as reported in a section of media,” and the attack on Babu, Karunanidhi said such “politicisation” of Muthukumaran’s “sacrifice” was against “our ethos,” and could turn the Sri Lankan issue into an instrument of “cheap publicity.”

The state government yesterday announced an ex-gratia of Rs two lakh to the family of Muthukumaran, who set himself ablaze on January 29 “to express solidarity with the Sri Lanka Tamils”.