COLOMBO: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appealed to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) to change its strategy in view of the change in government in Sri Lanka and its new outlook vis-a-vis the Tamil question.
Briefing Express on the TNA’ s meeting with Modi on Friday, TNA’s spokesman Suresh Premachandran said that the Indian PM had found President Maithripala Sirisena to be thinking on new lines on the Tamil question.
“When I met Sirisena today I saw that his approach to the question of land (taken by the military and not given back to the civilians after the war) and the question of Tamil prisoners , to be fresh and sympathetic. The government is new and should be given time to sort out matters,” Modi told the Tamil delegation.
“It would be good if your think tanks devise new approaches to the question and work out new strategies,” the PM added.
TNA leader R Sampanthan told Modi that India should press the Lankan government to re-unite the Northern and Esstern Provinces as per the India-Lanka Accord of 1987.The provinces were separated in 2006.