Expressing disappointment over the government’s approach towards the issues concerning Sri Lankan Tamils, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader M. Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday urged India to play a proactive role and raise this issue before the international community.
Referring to the remark made by External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in the Rajya Sabha today, expressing keenness towards the national reconciliation process initiated by the Sri Lankan Government, Naidu said the BJP is not satisfied with the steps earlier by the Indian Government.
“We are not satisfied with the steps, the Indian Government has taken so far. We understand that neither we can treat Sri Lanka like an enemy nor we may directly intervene in their internal issue, because we have been sharing friendly and peaceful relations since long, but the history tells that we trained their army, we had sent peace keeping forces, so we must talk to them peacefully,” said Naidu.
“Though Sri Lanka is our old friend, but we may not ignore the human rights violation like the recent case of brutal killing of a 12-year-old boy. New Delhi should take initiative to raise such issues before the international forums like United Nations,” he added.
Earlier in the day, Khurshid informed the Rajya Sabha that India is keen that the national reconciliation process initiated by the Sri Lankan Government, met the aspirations of the Tamil Community living there and said New Delhi will remain engaged with Colombo to take forward this process in the island nation.
In his response to a calling attention notice on the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Khurshid said India has stressed on devolution of powers including implementation of the 13th amendment in the broader dialogue process.
He further stated that the government will await the outcome of the talks between Sri Lanka and the United States (US) on a draft resolution proposed to be moved by the US at the United Nation Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva in March this year before deciding on voting on the resolution. (ANI)