A track-II Indian team, led by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Deputy Leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Rajya Sabha, on Friday urged Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to hold elections to the Tamil-speaking Northern Province and politically empower the Tamils to enable them to live with dignity and respect in the island nation.
“I told the President emphatically that since the war has ended, it is time to win the hearts of the Tamil people. The empowerment of the Tamils through devolution of power and free and fair elections to the Northern Provincial Council are very important,” Prasad said.
The six-member delegation, which is on a five-day tour of Sri Lanka, is on a Track II initiative arranged by the Indian foundation of New Delhi and the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies of Colombo.
The team met President Rajapaksa, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa among others. The President assured that the elections would be held as promised in September this year.
The BJP-led delegation which had a Shiv Sena MP, an RSS executive, a former Ambassador, a columnist and a human rights lawyer made it clear to the Lankan leaders that the Sri Lankan Tamil issue was a national issue in India.
Speaking on the issue of Lanka’s moving away from India and lurching towards China, the Defence Secretary assured that Lanka’s relations with China would never be at the cost of India.
On the vexed issue of Tamil Nadu fishermen being attacked by the Lankan navy, Prasad told the Lankan leaders that attacking the fishermen was unacceptable.
The Indian delegation was witness to a ceremony in which President Rajapaksa released a postage stamp featuring Swami Vivekananda to mark his 150th birth anniversary. The first day cover had a sketch of the Vivekananda temple at Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.