Click to play videoNew Delhi: Politics over Tamils in Sri lanka is heating up with every politician in Tamil Nadu attacking Colombo over the alleged atrocities over innocent Tamil civilians in its offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The United Progressive Alliance Government is now being forced to choose between a coalition partner and a neighbour. All the 14 Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) Members of Parliament including seven Union Ministers submitted their symbolic resignation to DMK chief M Karunanidhi in Chennai on October 17.
In New Delhi, Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanler Menon had a tough message for Colombo.
"We see it has a humanitarian crises which effects civilian population and it really needs to be addressed but there is a larger issue of settling the conflicts which requires a political settlement and it cannot be settled militarily," Memon said.
The Sri Lankan Army is closing in on Pooneryn, the capture of which would cut the flow of supplies to the LTTE from Tamil Nadu. Also Army units are closing in on Killinochchi and Mullaitivu from four different directions but the main concern is about more than 2 lakh Tamil civilians caught in the middle of the fighting.
In Colombo, Defence Secretary Gothbaya Rajapaksa hit back at some political parties in India of falling prey to LTTE propaganda.
"We know there are LTTE sympathisers in Tamil Nadu and they are exerting pressure on New Delhi. Parties in Tamil Nadu cannot fall to such propaganda," Gothbaya said.
But both sides are looking for a solution. Colombo is sending a team of MPs headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa's adviser and brother Basil Rajapaksa to New Delhi to discuss the war against the LTTE.
And External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee may head to Colombo with the DMK saying they want assurances that civilians will be protected.
"Let them say that they haven’t killed any civilian. Let them say that they haven’t killed any children. Then it becomes unfair on our part to criticise them, but it is not like that. When innocent people and children are killed by heavy bombing it is quite natural for everybody to feel bad about it and we will definitely condemn it," DMK TKS Elangovan said.
As India gears up to receive the Sri Lankan delegation, the task before the External Affairs Ministry is to strike a balance between a delicate foreign policy issue and the compulsions of coalition politics.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest)
More on IBNLive Right Now
MOST SHARED
PHOTOGALLERY
