PMK Presses Centre to Change its SL Policy

A delegation, led by PMK MP Anbumani Ramadoss, met external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to demand that NDA should change its policy towards Sri Lanka.

CHENNAI/ NEW DELHI: The PMK battled on multiple fronts on Wednesday, in its bid to get the Centre to reverse its stated policy of not supporting the UN probe into war crimes towards the end of bloody civil conflict in Sri Lanka. While party founder S Ramadoss demanded a Tamil Nadu Assembly resolution pressing the Centre on this count, a collective led by party scion Anbumani Ramadoss met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to make the same demand.

“Efforts must be made to press the Centre to support the UN probe and conduct it in Chennai if need be. If necessary, a resolution should be passed in the Tamil Nadu Assembly to this effect, and the government should take steps to raise the points of that resolution to the Centre’s attention,” said Ramadoss in a statement released on Wednesday morning.

Later in the day, Anbumani, along with members of a collective called the Civil Society Coalition for Justice and Peace, met Swaraj and made a representation calling for a reorientation of India’s foreign policy. The representation suggested the appointment of an independent person as India’s Special Representative to go over aspects of relations between India and Sri Lanka.

Sushma Meeting

A delegation, led by PMK MP Anbumani Ramadoss, met external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to demand that NDA should change its policy towards Sri Lanka.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Ramadoss said the Centre’s stance had come as a shock to Tamil Nadu. PMK, which is part of the National Democratic Alliance.

“NDA should change its policy towards Sri Lanka and should not follow the line of the previous UPA government,” said Anbumani after the meeting. Swaraj told the delegation that the NDA government understood the problem of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Ramadoss claimed.

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