LTTE anti-Indian - Dr. Subramanian Swamy
Former Indian Cabinet Minister for Law and Justice, Dr. Subramanian
Swamy yesterday, described the Tigers [LTTE] as part of the problem of
strife in Sri Lanka and not part of the possible solution. On Tuesday,
he was addressing a meeting organised by the Canadian Democratic Tamil
Association for Culture at Centennial College Student Center in Toronto.
Dr. Swamy, who is also a Harvard trained economist, told the audience
that the most Indians considered LTTE as anti-Indian, and a terrorist
organisation. He listed that LTTE assassination of former Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the terrorist outfit's material support to
other terrorist organizations within India, such ULFA and the Maoists,
as reasons for its lack of support in India. He pointed out those recent
attempts by some Tamil separatists and extremists in the state of Tamil
Nadu to drum up support for the LTTE proved to be a fiasco.
He maintained that while India does not support an independent Tamil
Eelam and respects the integrity of Sri Lanka, nevertheless India will
strive for devolution in the present Constitution of Sri Lanka as
promised in the proposals of the all-party committee submitted to the
Sri Lankan President.
India, he said, will hold its patience till the LTTE problem is
solved by its decimation in the current ongoing military action, but
that sooner or later India will ask for implementation of the devolution
proposals so that the large Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India can
return home.
The meeting is significant because Toronto has been in the past
considered by the Tamil diaspora as a stronghold of the LTTE. The
emergence of an anti-LTTE formation by Sri Lankan Tamils in the city and
the invitation to a foremost opponent of that terrorist organisation to
address their meeting is taken by observers as a new development that is
reflective of the weakening hold of the LTTE on the Tamil diaspora.
The Association President Suresh Elancheran proposed a vote of thanks
and suggested that time had come for an international conference of
Democratic Tamils for a Federal Sri Lanka be convened in New Delhi next
year. Mr.
Krishna Sastri of the Canada Kanchi Kamakoti Forum also spoke and
congratulated the organisers.
Asian Tribune |
