Chennai: As the Sri Lankan Tamils issue rocked
Parliament for the second day, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa on Wednesday expressed issatisfaction over Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh`s "non-committal" response on India`s
stand on the US-backed resolution against Colombo at the UNHCR
and insisted that New Delhi support it.
"There was no commitment from the Prime Minister. AIADMK is
not satisfied with the response," she told reporters
acknowledging that she had received a letter from Singh in
response to her two communications on the issue.
Jayalalithaa said she had received the response after she
wrote two letters to Singh demanding that India back the US
resolution against Sri Lanka for its alleged war crimes
(during the last phase of the civil war in 2009).
"We will continue to press our demand that India should
support the resolution against Sri Lanka," she said as
political parties from Tamil Nadu kept up the pressure on the
Centre on the issue.
The contents of Singh`s reply to Jayalalithaa were not
known but he had in another letter to DMK chief M Karunanidhi,
who had also raised the issue, made clear that India attached
"high priority" to the safety, prosperity and well-being of
the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.
Addressing a campaign rally for the March 18 assembly
byelection in Sankarankoil in Tirunelveli district,
Jayalalithaa hit out at UPA questioning its committment
towards Tamils.
"Soon after AIADMK came to power, we passed a resolution in
the Assembly demanding that the central government take steps
to declare as war criminals those who were involved in the
genocide (of Tamils) in Sri Lanka and impose economic
sanctions on that country," she told the rally.
However, the Centre did not take any action. Instead,
reports suggest that India would oppose the US-sponsored
resolution against Sri Lanka. "This is the concern of Congress
towards Tamils," she said taking a dig at the party.
Her remarks came on a day when the anti-Sri Lanka
resolution issue continued to rock Parliament with her party
members walking out from Rajya Sabha after tearing a copy of
the statement made by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in
the House.
PTI
