'Within united Sri Lanka, Tamils should have a separate state... like the federal set up in India,' said CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury.
CPI-M Parliamentary Party leader Sitaram Yechury has said that Sri Lankan Tamils should have an autonomous state within a united Sri Lanka.
"Within united Sri lanka, Tamils should have a separate state..like the federal set up in India.Tamils should be given autonomy within the framework of united Sri lanka and not on the basis of a unitary nation. The term united is different from unitary," he said.
The Lankan government should address the humanitarian problem faced by the Tamils and work towards a political solution to the long pending problem of Tamil minority, he said at a seminar organised by CPIM on finding a solution to problems faced by the island Tamils here yesterday.
"They should pay attention to resettling the Tamils, providing relief. They are now living in poor conditions The Sri Lankan government must agree for an international supervisory mechanism. It should also allow international agencies to create conditions of resettlement of Internally displaced persons and that process must be started forthwith."
Any attempt to bring demographic change by asking the majority population to migrate to minority area should be discouraged as it would cause tension in the future,he said.
The Island government must introduce welfare measures and help the Tamils start farm operations and continue their studies. Simultaneously complete autonomy should be granted to the Tamil speaking areas in the north and east on basis of federal principles,he said.
Tamil must be again introduced as an official language of the island nation to restore confidence among the Tamil speaking population, he added.
Later, participating in a protest organised by the party against the fuel price hike, Yechury said the date of announcement of fuel price increase coincided with the date of announcement of emergency 30 years ago.
"While emergency is worst form of political authoritarianism, the fuel price hike is worst form of economic authoritarianism.The CPIM will fight it out and make them roll back the hike," he said.
The increase in fuel price was an attack on the people,who
were already suffering due to inflation, he said.
He rejected the reason cited by the UPA government for the fuel price increase that the oil companies were facing losses. If the government withdrew the heavy tax on crude then the prices would automatically come down,and oil companies would
not suffer any loss, he claimed, adding, government should
withdraw tax on petroleum products and import of petroleum.
The government could use Rs.1 lakh crore collected from the sale of spectrum for 3 G and broadband wireless access to support welfare schemes. The government was creating "IPL India" for the rich and "BPL India" for the poor. The government could heavily tax IPL and help the poor. It was creating more gap between the rich and poor,he said.
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