Chennai, Mar 19 (IANS) The DMK Tuesday quit the UPA and its government voicing dismay over India's stand over Sri Lanka at the UNHRC, but Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said there was no threat to the government.

DMK chief M. Karunanidhi announced that his party could not accept New Delhi's bid to bail out Sri Lanka which faces charges of committing human rights abuses on the Tamil community.

"Continuing in this government will be an injustice to the Sri Lankan Tamils," the former Tamil Nadu chief minister told the media. The DMK has 18 members in the Lok Sabha and five ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council of ministers.

Karunanidhi said the UPA government had not only refused to consider the DMK's views on the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the UNHRC but had quietly watered it down.

He also ruled out extending outside legislative support to the UPA, in which the DMK was the largest constituent after the Congress.

The announcement made at the DMK headquarters was lustily cheered by a large number of party cadres who burst firecrackers and shouted slogans hailing Karunanidhi.

The US has introduced a resolution pulling up Sri Lanka over rights abuses and more at the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

But the DMK and the AIADMK want the Indian government to introduce amendments in the resolution accusing Sri Lanka of committing "genocide" on Tamils during the war against the Tamil Tigers.

If a resolution was introduced in Indian parliament accusing Sri Lanka of committing "genocide", "we are ready to change our view", the DMK leader said.

The DMK announcement, which sent the stock market crashing, came a day after a three-member Congress delegation called on Karunanidhi late Monday following his threat to quit the UPA.

The Congress core group, including president Sonia Gandhi, held a crisis meeting soon after the DMK pullout.

UPA government is stable, says Chidambaram

The Congress-led UPA government is stable and enjoys majority support in parliament despite the DMK's exit, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said Tuesday.

"The government is stable, the government enjoys majority in the Lok Sabha," he told the media here after DMK chief M. Karunanidhi announced his party was pulling out of the UPA over the Sri Lanka issue.

"The government is stable and will continue," he added.

Speaking later, Chidambaram tried to placate Karunanidhi by saying the Congress had noted his views and that he was a senior leader who "deserves all respect".

Markets crash as DMK quits UPA

Indian equities crashed Tuesday morning, minutes after the DMK quit the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) over the Sri Lankan issue.

The sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened higher Tuesday at 19,345.91 points against the last close at 19,293.20 points. But soon after the news of the pullout, it crashed to 18,939.47 points, an intra-day fall of over 400 points.

The key index saw some volatile movement and was quoting at 19,066.25 points before noon, with a loss of 226.95 points, or 1.18 percent, over the previous day's close.

The DMK has 18 members in the Lok Sabha and five of its MPs are ministers in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's council of Ministers. The party wants a resolution adopted in parliament declaring there was genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is under attack over the death of a large number of Tamil civilians during the final stages of the war that crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.