New Delhi: Taking a stand at variance
with that of the BJP, the RSS on Sunday said India should not
support the US-sponsored resolution in the UN against the Sri Lankan government on alleged human rights violations, calling
it an attempt by the west to dictate to a democratic
government.
BJP has been sympathetic to the resolution in the UN
Human Rights Council and has supported regional parties -- DMK
and AIADMK -- in demanding that the UPA government should make
its stand clear on whether it would support the move.
RSS, however, maintained India should take an
"unequivocal stand" against the US resolution.
"If India baulks today and adopts a `neutral`
position, it would find itself in the dock one day. India by
its geo-political position must take a robust stand against
the west interfering in issues not concerning them directly.
There is no case for the US or any European nations to dictate
to a democratically elected government," said an editorial in
the latest issue of RSS` mouthpiece `Organiser`.
It adds that India should not support this attempt to
humiliate it in a world forum that "belongs as much to us as
it does to the West".
Interestingly, the mouthpiece accuses LTTE of
committing atrocities on ethnic Tamils and appears to support
the Mahinda Rajapakse government which crushed the outfit. BJP
has always spoken against the present Sri Lankan regime on the
issue.
"While accusing the Sri Lankan government of human
rights violations, one must remember that the enemy was not a
hapless, unarmed group of peaceful activists. The cadres of
LTTE were armed to the teeth with the latest machine guns,
rocket launchers and tanks," the editorial said.
The Organiser further states that the last few weeks
of the war that are under scrutiny now witnessed a pitched
battle in which both sides "killed and got killed
unrestrained".
"The number of child soldiers LTTE chief V Prabhakaran
recruited and trained has not been documented. Boys and girls
were picked up at an unsuspecting age, fed on a liberal dose
of LTTE literature enumerating the torture and humiliation of
the Tamils by the Lankans and were prepared to `fight` on the
command of the well-structured LTTE `army`," the editorial
said.
This observation has come at a time when there are
reports of a footage showing Prabhakaran`s 12-year-old son
being shot brutally by the Sri Lankan army.
A Parliamentary delegation led by Leader of Opposition
in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and senior BJP leader M Venkaiah
Naidu is slated to visit Sri Lanka soon to take up the issue
of atrocities against Tamils during the last phase of the war
with LTTE and the reported refusal to rehabilitate Tamils.
The RSS mouthpiece does, however, support India taking
up the issue and insists that Sri Lankan government has the
responsibility of rehabilitating the victims of the civil war.
"The Tamils of Sri Lanka are citizens of that country.
At best, India has an interest and moral responsibility to
speak for them, which India has been doing all these decades.
But it makes no case for anybody else to intervene," Organiser
said.
But the RSS is vehemently against the US resolution in
the UN on Sri Lanka.
PTI
