Click to play videoCNN-IBN: Is there some merit in what the AIADMK chief is suggesting? Even if one were to put aside the fact that an elected Chief Minister is eulogising a terrorist, the fact remains that your ally has been insensitive to you and the Congress' response - if anything - has been muted.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi: Let's start with Jayalalithaa first. What she is saying is laughable. She seems to think that all parties are one person regional outfits like hers. Well the Congress is not. It is a large party and when it speaks through its spokesperson, it speaks with the authority of the Congress President. In case Ms Jayalalithaa has not been listening, since yesterday, the party - myself included - has repeatedly repeated the principles that Prabhakaran is a terrorist, the LTTE is a terrorist organisation and if they catch him, he should be handed over to us. If anybody thinks that by raising a non-issue and by cheapening it to the same abusive language for which Ms Jayalalithaa is known, you are going to provoke people, then you have got another guess coming. Is the Congress President different from the Congress party? No. And I will certainly not reply in the same cheap political discourse as she believes in, except to say that Ms Jayalalithaa, we are not one person outfits where the President has to take the mike to speak and react to everything which anybody says. Why don't you for a change say the same things that we are saying, that Prabhakaran is a terrorist, the LTTE is a banned organisation and Prabhakaran should be handed over to us if he is caught. We are clear.
CNN-IBN: You have made your displeasure - if you like - against the DMK chief's words very clear, but you aren't doing is the next step. They are your allies in partnership. What Jayalalithaa seems to be pointing out is that how can you continue to be in alliance with a party which seems to praise the killers of Rajiv Gandhi.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi: First thing she is not doing that. She is using cheap words like widow and asking for a response from the Congress President when we the party have spoken. But secondly, just consider how shallow the issue is. Is the Congress party honest to its stand - that Prabhakaran is a terrorist, the LTTE is a banned organisation and Prabhakaran should be handed over to us if he is caught - the answer is yes. Has the Congress party done any other thing which several parties have been asking us to do from Tamil Nadu and elsewhere - interfering in the operations of the Sri Lankan government against LTTE - we have not. We are an alliance. What matters is what we do, not what people say. It is not necessary that the views or the formulation of every alliance partner must match ours. What we so is important and we have stood steadfast.
CNN-IBN: Your own party's response post the Jain Commission report was so starkly different from the response we are seeing right now. Did the Congress at least ask questions of the DMK as to why these statements were made?
Abhishek Manu Singhvi: Apart from the fact that Mr Karunanidhi's formulation - later - matches exactly with ours, even if you ignore that, there is not one millimeter difference between our stand now and then after the Jain Commission report.
CNN-IBN: You pulled out the rug from under the I K Gujaral government at the time and today you are standing with the DMK.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi: We are not. We are not standing with the DMK's earlier formulation. We have been saying this the whole day yesterday and we have not agreed to a single word that says let Prabhakaran go. Don't ignore the fact that the same DMK President said some time ago that Prabhakaran is a terrorist. We are okay with him retracting his statement. What more can we ask of him?
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