New Delhi
25 September 2006
After engaging Sri Lankan-Tamil members of parliament who are
seen as sympathetic to the LTTE, India is playing host to three Sri Lankan-Tamil former
MPs who are opposed to the LTTE's ways. Incidentally, two of them belong to the same
political parties that were represented in the talks last week.
The three ex-MPs are Mr V Anandasangaree of Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Mr
D Sitharthan of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Mr T
Sritharan of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF). The Unesco
recently awarded Mr Anandasangaree for promotion of tolerance and non-violence. Born
in Sri Lanka in 1933, Mr Anandasangaree became the president of the Tamil United
Liberation Front in 2002, after working as a teacher and lawyer.
Observers tracking India's relations with the strife-torn island nation see this as a part of
a larger exercise by New Delhi to engage the Tamils in Sri Lanka. India has chosen to
pursue a hands-off policy insofar as the LTTE and the ethnic question is concerned and
has had official contacts with only the Sri Lankan government.
Last week, a five-member delegation comprising Sri Lankan-Tamil lawmakers returned to
Colombo after failing to get an audience with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The MPs,
who are members of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA), nevertheless did call on
Union Minister of State of External Affairs E Ahamed and hold talks with National Security
Adviser MK Narayanan and Foreign Secretary-designate Shiv Shankar Menon.
Mr Sampanthan Rajavarthanam pf TULF, who led that delegation, acknowledged that the
assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was a "reckless act" and a "tragic
aberration" and hoped the Indian leadership would be "sympathetic" to them.
No comments:
Post a Comment