Home Minister L K Advani, whose absence from the country had led to postponement of the Cabinet meeting on Monday, met different Tamil groups immediately on arrival to apprise himself of the situation in Tamil Nadu following the arrest of former chief minister M Karunanidhi. He separately met delegations of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) for about ten minutes each just before leaving for the meeting of the Union Cabinet. The AIADMK members gave the minister a video tape, which they said was recorded by the police, showing the events related to the arrest of Karunanidhi and the two union ministers Murasoli Maran and T R Balu.
The minister arrived on Tuesday evening from his tour of Germany and Turkey, where he signed extradition treaties, and also the United Arab Emirates.
While the DMK delegation comprised of three members, the AIADMK group had about fifteen members including some ministers. The DMK team had A Raja and P N Shiva who is a Rajya Sabha member and Thiruvanakarasu of the MGR ADMK. The AIADMK delegation had, among others, Tamil Nadu ministers C Ponnaiyan and Thambi Durai and over ten Members of Parliament, including P H Pandian who is the AIADMK leader in the Lok Sabha.

Bureau Report