News: Conditional offer to go as emissary!

By S. Dorairaj

Cuddalore Sept. 20. Though the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, has decided against sending emissaries to secure the release of the former Karnataka Minister, H. Nagappa, from the clutches of the forest brigand Veerappan, two human rights activists — P. Kalyani and G. Sugumaran — have said that they will undertake a mission only if the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu governments jointly declare them as “official emissaries.”

Shortly after meeting the Tamil Nationalist Movement (TNM) leader, P. Nedumaran, in the Cuddalore central prison today, they told newsmen that a detailed statement on their stand would be released here tomorrow.

The two activists, in a memorandum to the Karnataka Home Minister, Mallikarjun Kharge, had stated on September 17 that after “discussing the modalities of their mission, they would communicate the same to T. Srinivasalu, State security adviser.”

Mr. Sugumaran, secretary of the Federation for People’s Rights-Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, said he and Mr. Kalyani, its treasurer, had apprised Mr. Nedumaran of the outcome of their meetings with Mr. Kharge, and others during their visit to Karnataka on Tuesday. The TNM leader had given them some suggestions.

Asked if Mr. Nedumaran concurred with their views on undertaking a mission, Prof. Kalyani said not only the former but Kolathur Mani, another activist, who had been lodged in the Bellary jail, also held views. The two activists had consulted Mr. Mani at the jail on September 16. “All of us are working as a team”, he said. “We also hold the view that abduction could not be a solution to political problems”, Mr. Sugumaran said.

Though they had held discussions with Mr. Kharge and others as they were formally approached by the Karnataka Government, Mr. Sugumaran and Prof. Kalyani made it clear that they could not take the next step unless the two State Governments gave an undertaking akin to the one given during an earlier mission to the forest to secure the release of Kannada thespian, Rajkumar, a couple of years ago. To a query, he said none of the family members of Mr. Nagappa had contacted them. They also reiterated the demand for a probe by the CBI or the NHRC into the alleged human rights abuse against Kolathur Mani in Karnataka.

The Hindu / 22.09.2002.