The DMK and its former president M Karunanidhi who passed away on August 7 got a clean chit from an unlikely source. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the former Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka, who led the Island Nation's final assault on LTTE during 2009 said that the DMK was quite understanding about the problems faced by Sri Lanka and did not give any space to the Tamil terrorists to operate from Tamil Nadu.

In an exclusive interview to The Pioneer at his Colombo residence, the former Defence Secretary, described as the second most powerful person during Mahinda Rajapaksa's regime, also dismissed the claims by President Mythripala Sirisena that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had plans to launch air attacks in Colombo and elsewhere in the island nation by operating aircraft from Tamil Nadu.

“It is a wrong information. The President has been given wrong information about such a plan by the LTTE. It is true the LTTE had some aircraft with them but they would not have used Tamil Nadu to launch any attack on Sri Lanka,” said Rajapaksa.

Gotabhaya, brother of the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was the brain behind the obliteration of LTTE which waged terrorist attacks in  Sri Lanka for more than three decades.

When Mahinda became the President of Sri Lanka in 2005, one of the important policy decisions made by him was to appoint Gotabhaya, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the country’s Army, as the Nation’s Defence Secretary with a clear mandate to save the country from the terrorism unleashed by the LTTE.

“Since the new Government led  by Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in,  we in Sri Lanka had received all kind of help and cooperation from the Indian Government. Though politicians in Tamil Nadu were  sensitive to the Tamil issue in Sri Lanka, during our regime, the then DMK Government led by M Karunanidhi never allowed the LTTE to operate from Tamil Nadu. Whenever we wanted help of any kind, we got prompt assistance from the Government of India,” said Gotabhaya.

He also recalled the fast undertaken by the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at Marina Beach in Chennai in May 2009 following wrong news about atrocities on Tamils. “But the moment he was informed about the ground realities and facts, Karunanidhi called off his fast. He too never allowed any space to the LTTE to operate from Tamil Nadu against Sri Lanka,”said Gottabhaya.