2ND LEAD

Tamil Nadu Government gives ultimatum to New Delhi to safeguard Eelam Tamils

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, 19:39 GMT]
Giving a time frame of a fortnight to New Delhi to respond, an All Party Meeting organized by the Tamil Nadu Government at the State Secretariat in Chennai on Tuesday warned the Union Government of India that all forty members of the Indian parliament representing Tamils would resign en masse if New Delhi failed to take up the right steps to protect Eezham Tamils.

The resolution demanded that New Delhi should withdraw military assistance to the Sri Lankan government and demand Colombo to announce a ceasefire to enable the affected civilians to receive humanitarian assistance. India should take measures to ensure that there is no war in Sri Lanka and that peace prevails in Tamil homeland.

The all-party meeting was chaired by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi, who adopted the above resolution.

There are 39 MPs from Tamil Nadu (16 DMK, 10 Congress, 5 PMK, 4 Leftist and 4 MDMK) and one from the Union State of Puducherry.

After a series of demonstrations spear-headed by various political parties in the state against the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, the all-party meeting sought to explore ways in which Eezham Tamils can be protected from the Sri Lankan military.

Political analysts in Chennai said that the opposition parties in Tamil Nadu who have already taken a hard line supporting the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka have compelled Kalaignar Karunanidhi and his party DMK to fall in line and to adopt the present resolution.

The AIADMK, MDMK and BJP gave an external pressure without taking part in the meeting, demanding the DMK government to issue ultimatum to the Centre while several other parties including PMK, VCK, CPI, CPI(M), Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), All India Forward Block and Tamil National Movement, participated in the meeting, exerting an internal pressure on Tamil Nadu government in shaping the ultimatum.

T. Pandiyan of CPI, Pazha Nedumaran of TNM, K.K. Mani of PMK, Vijaya T. Rajendar of AILDMK argued that New Delhi should be given an ultimatum to deal with Colombo. The Sri Lankan government should pull out its troops from the Tamil homeland and engage in talks to resolve the conflict, they said.

In the meantime, Vaiko, the General Secretary of the MDMK, in a statement issued on Monday squarely blamed the ruling DMK for the negative role it played in regards to the struggle of Eezham Tamils and has said it is responsible along with the Congress government of India for the present plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

A constructive step needed by the times is that Tamil Nadu state assembly passing a resolution on the Right to Self-Determination of Eezham Tamils, said political quarters in Tamil Nadu.