Chennai: The court room in Chennai saw some real life drama as DMK president and former chief minister M Karunanidhi made a political spectacle of a defamation case filed against him by the Tamil Nadu government. Judge N Authinathan took no more than a minute to acknowledge the 92 year old leaders' personal appearance, and adjourned the case to March 10 for further hearing.
However, a crowd had already gathered, both inside and outside the court hall and started raising slogans, giving a tough time to the police. The case is over a statement issued by Karunanidhi asking as to what his rival and chief minister Jayalalithaa had achieved in four years of power. The politico turned his appearance into an event, ahead of the assembly elections in the state. Though this lawyers had suggested that as usual his defamation complaint too could be challenged in the high court and proceedings could be stayed, he preferred to appear in court in person. The 'special appearance' was a publicity stunt by the DMK to draw attention to, what it calls, the persecution of the ruling party's critics and political rivals. Emerging from the court, the DMK chief told reporters that defamation cases were being filed for anything said about the state government.
He also said even the Supreme Court had recently indicated that initiating so many defamation cases was not the right attitude. “I have nothing new to say. Justice will prevail, and people should unite for justice,” he said.
