Expressing shock at the Centre’s decision to supply naval warships to Sri Lanka, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately cancel the agreement, if there was any, in this regard and requested him to ensure that no support of any kind was provided to the Lankan military forces. She also sought an immediate clarification from the PM on the issue.
“Any move to supply military hardware to Sri Lanka would be the most telling statement on the insensitivity of the Government of India to the strong sentiments in Tamil Nadu,” the CM said in the letter to the PM.
She said, far from holding Colombo accountable for its acts of genocide and war crimes against the Tamil minority in the island nation, as any champion of democratic values should, the Centre’s action would be seen as an act of actively working with the regime and providing them with the necessary wherewithal to act even more strongly, not only against the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka, but also against poor Indian fishermen. “I shudder to even countenance such an insult to the people of Tamil Nadu,” she added.
Jayalalithaa said New Delhi should not supply naval warships to Colombo, given the strength of the public sentiment in Tamil Nadu.