MPs from the pro-LTTE TNA are in New Delhi to meet Manmohan Singh and give him the terror outfits take on the situation in Lanka.
Tamil National Alliance will brief him on Lanka situation.
NEW DELHI: Members of Parliament from the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA) are in the capital to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and give him the terror outfits take on the situation in Sri Lanka.
Ironically, while the Prime Minister is ready to take time off from his busy schedule to give them an audience, most of them would not be given the time of day by LTTE chief Prabhakaran. The reclusive Tiger boss meets only his most trusted aides.
The promise to meet the pro-LTTE MP’s was extracted by the MDMK leader Vaiko when he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after demonstrating in front of the Sri Lanka High Commission last month. The delegation will also meet National Security Advisor MKNarayanan and foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Significantly the MPs are here on the invitation of the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA). They will be meeting National Security Advisor MK Narayanan as well as Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran.
The date for the meeting is not yet confirmed, but the move made basically to placate MDMK, a small regional party in Tamil Nadu sympathetic to the Tigers is both ill-timed and ill-advised, creating suspicion of India's motives in the island, where India's business and economic stakes are large.
The two countries signed a free trade agreement in the nineties and business is flourishing in the island. Sri Lanka is one of the few neighbours to have excellent ties with India. And for a change New Delhi has a good equation not only with the two major national parties the SLFP and the UNP but also the smaller groups.
Ironically, many of the members, including the leader P Sambandan, are former members of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), a moderate Tamil group which had always fought for the rights of the Tamil minorities.
When the Tigers assassinated the TULF leader Amritalingam, Sambandan than a senior member of the party did not have the courage to condemn the killing.
For the PM to meet the pro-LTTE MP’s, especially when the LTTE is banned, is surprising. The meeting with comes at a time when the international community is focussed on fighting terror groups.
The LTTE is finding is difficult to collect money from expatriate Tamils who had once liberally filled its coffers.
Indian officials, however, defended the move, saying they are democratically elected leaders. “Meeting them and hearing them out is by no means an endorsement of the LTTE, which is banned here. We are willing to meet all groups from the island,” said an official.
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