DMK, AIADMK and Left parties unhappy with Centre’s stand on Sri Lankan Tamils

NEW DELHI: DMK members staged a walkout, along with rival AIADMK and Left parties in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, saying it had lost faith in the Centre’s ability to address the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils.

The Lankan Tamils’ issue has returned as a major political issue in Tamil Nadu, following the release of photographs showing LTTE chief Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son in the Sri Lankan Army’s custody before he was shot dead, allegedly in cold blood.

Replying to the discussion, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid said that India cannot intervene directly in Sri Lanka’s sovereign matters. “Accountability must come from within Sri Lanka.” He also did not reveal the stand New Delhi would take at the UN on a resolution against Colombo. The US is expected to introduce a new legislation in a few days against Sri Lanka, asking it to explain how it eliminated LTTE.

AIADMK’s Maitreyan, who opened the discussion in the Rajya Sabha, asked India to move a single-line resolution at the UN meet in Geneva, next month, over what he called the ‘genocide’ by the Sri Lankan Army. “It is time the Lanka-centric approach of the external affairs ministry is changed to a Tamil welfare-centric approach.”

He taunted DMK for ‘failing to pressure’ the UPA government into action. DMK said it wanted India to back a resolution in the UN against Sri Lanka and asked the government not to allow Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse into India.

“Whether you want to have friendly relations with Sri Lanka or with your brethren in the South, decide yourself. Children are without limbs, women are losing what they should not,” DMK leader Tiruchi Siva said. Rajya Sabha members demanded an independent, credible investigation into how the child was killed. Khurshid said India could not adjudicate about the truth behind the incident and apportion responsibility on anybody for the “very moving, very tragic, very sad” incident.

The Left and BJP asked the government to take a tough stand against Sri Lanka. “I urge upon the government to play a proactive role in Sri Lanka and vote against them if the situation demands so. India should demand an impartial international investigation into the war crimes committed against Tamils,” CPI’s D Raja said.

In the series of photographs shot in 2009, the bare-chested boy is first shown seated on a bench watching something outside the frame. Then he is seen having a snack. In the third image he is lying on the ground with bullet holes in his chest.

The photographs, which were released last week by the British broadcaster Channel 4, appear to document the final moments in the life of 12-year-old Balachandran Prabhakaran, the youngest son of slain LTTE founder Prabhakaran. The Lankan government has, however, claimed that the photographs were morphed.