Invitation to Rajapakse unfortunate: TN parties

IANS/ChennaiTamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa yesterday termed as “unfortunate” prime minister-designate Narendra Modi’s decision to invite Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to his swearing-in ceremony.The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) also opposed the invitation, while the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party supported the invitation move. The Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) have not yet reacted. “We had hoped that the new government... would be sympathetic to the cause of Tamils and friendly to Tamil Nadu,” Jayalalithaa said in a statement.She said the “unfortunate move” of inviting Rajapakse “has deeply upset the people of Tamil Nadu and wounded their sentiments all over again.”“This is tantamount to rubbing salt into the wounds of the already deeply injured Tamil psyche,” she added.Heads of government of South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation countries, including Sri Lanka, have been invited to attend Monday’s swearing-in ceremony of Modi as India’s new prime minister. Besides Rajapakse, leaders of the Maldives, Afghanistan and Nepal have accepted the invitation.Jayalalithaa said it would have been better if the “ill-advised move” had been avoided, keeping in mind the relationship the Modi government would like to have with the Tamil Nadu administration.“There has been a general election and a new government is to take charge in a few days but this in no way alters the already existing strained relations between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka,” she said.Jayalalithaa has turned a bitter critic of the Rajapakse regime over the death of thousands of innocents in the end stages of Sri Lanka’s war which crushed the Tamil Tigers in 2009.She denounced the Congress for its alleged pro-Colombo policy while seeking votes in the Lok Sabha election. The Congress was washed out in Tamil Nadu while her All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam won 37 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats.Jayalalithaa said the Tamil Nadu assembly had passed resolutions during the last three years on the “war crimes” in Sri Lanka.“We had demanded an economic embargo on Sri Lanka and urged that India should take the lead in bringing a resolution in the UN for those accused of war crimes and genocide to be brought before the International Court of Justice and that they should be made to face trial,” she said.Among the BJP allies in Tamil Nadu, MDMK general secretary Vaiko opposed the decision to invite Rajapakse.In a letter to Modi, Vaiko said the news of inviting Rajapakse for the swearing-in-ceremony was like a thunderbolt.“With tears in my eyes and with folded hands I request you to prevent Rajapakse from attending the swearing-in ceremony and provide a comforting belief to the Tamils,” he said, adding officials in the Indian external affairs ministry “who betrayed the interests of Sri Lankan Tamils with their wrong advice for the past ten years, have ill-advised you to invite Rajapakse.”The MDMK leader also said the Sri Lankan presidents were not invited for the swearing-in of Atal Behari Vajpayee as prime minister and later when the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) governments took office.Two other parties - PMK and DMDK - that fought the general elections with the BJP are silent on the issue. PMK is one of the strongest parties to espouse the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils.On the other hand, DMK’s spokesman T K S Elangovan said Modi should understand the feelings of Tamil Nadu people, and could have avoided inviting Rajapakse.BJP’s state president and the party’s lone Lok Sabha MP from the state, Pon Radhakrishnan, however, defended the decision as the island nation is a Saarc member.Similarly, Tamil Nadu Congress chief B S Gnanadesikan, supporting the invitation, said if the welfare of Sri Lankan Tamils has to be secured, talks have to be held only with Rajapakse.