Narendra Modi invited Karunanidhi to his Delhi home for treatment, says MK Stalin

Madurai (Tamil Nadu): The DMK on Wednesday said no politics was involved in Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting the party’s ailing patriarch M Karunandihi, and said the former had invited the nonagenarian leader to Delhi for treatment. Modi, during his day-long visit on Monday, had called on Karunanidhi in an unscheduled visit, setting off speculation of a political realignment. [caption id=“attachment_4196731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Prime Minister Narendra Modi with DMK chief M Karunanidhi. PTI[/caption] DMK working president and Karunanidhi’s son, MK Stalin said he has already clarified that Modi came to meet Karunanidhi with no “political intentions.” Leading a protest against the Modi government’s note ban implemented in 2016, Stalin said the meeting between the two leaders on 6 November in Chennai was a “humanitarian” one. “Modi did not come for politics, we are also not ready to use him anytime for politics,” Stalin, the Leader of Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, said. Stalin made the comments while referring to reports that DMK had deferred the ‘black day’ protests against demonetisation on its first anniversary in some districts following Modi’s visit to Karunanidhi’s house in Gopalapuram on 6 November. Stalin said he had clarified on Monday itself that Modi had met Karunanidhi as the DMK president was a senior Dravidian leader and that he was taking rest in view of his old age. He also said Modi invited the 93-year-old Karunanidhi to stay at his Delhi residence. “He (Modi) said they won’t allow you (Karunanidhi) to take rest here as there would be a stream of visitors. He also invited (Karunanidhi) to come to his Delhi residence for treatment,” Stalin said. “Therefore this is humanitarian, and beyond politics,” he said, adding, any attempts to create “confusion” using the meeting between the two leaders will not succeed. Stalin said his party announced deferring the ‘black day’ protests in eight districts including Chennai only because of rains. In fact, the district units of Villupuram and Tiruvannamalai, two of the eight districts where the protest was deferred, told him that the situation was better there and that he had therefore asked them to hold the demonstrations as planned.