Calling on the Tamil diaspora across the world to return to Sri Lanka to work for the community, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, on Monday, drew a parallel with Israel and said Tamils should first ‘capture’ the land that belonged to them in the island nation if the dream of ‘Eelam’ is to come true.
Speaking to TV channels here, the minister, in the context of demands for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to visit the war-torn Tamil areas before the polls to the Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka, said the Tamils ‘capturing’ the land which belonged to them was a prerequisite for Eelam.
However, speaking to Express over the phone later, he said by Eelam he meant entire Sri Lanka and it was not a call to divide the nation. “I didn’t say Tamil Eelam. I said entire Sri Lanka belonged to Tamils as well and they deserved equal rights,” he said.