In what is seen as a rare gesture, political parties including the AIADMK and rival DMK joined hands in Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly on Thursday to unanimously pass a resolution urging the Union Government to boycott completely the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meet scheduled to be held at Sri lanka in November. The resolution, moved by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa demanded that even ‘token participation’ of Indian representatives should not be allowed in the meet.
“India should immediately communicate its decision to the Sri lankan Government and take steps to suspend the country from the Commonwealth till it secures rights for the Tamils on par with the Sinhalese and their independence,” said Jayalalithaa while moving the resolution. The Chief Minister had asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a recent letter that India should boycott the CHOGM summit to be held at Colombo in protest against the Sri lankan Government’s “continued apathy and indifferences” towards the plight of the Tamils in the northern part of the island nation.
While moving the resolution, Jayalalithaa recalled that the Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly under her leadership had passed a unanimous resolution asking the Centre to impose economic embargo against Sri lanka. Interestingly, the resolution comes days after a request made by CV Vigneswaran, the Chief Minister of Northern Province in Sri lanka, to the political parties in Tamil Nadu not to vitiate the atmosphere by issuing anti-Sinhala statements as it would further isolate the Tamils in the island nation from the Sinhalese.
Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri lanka’s former permanent representative to the United Nations, too has said that India’s boycott of the CHOGM would lead to deterioration of ties with Sri lanka. “India must not gain the Tamil minority of the island only to lose Sri lanka. India’s Sri lanka policy must not seem as if it has been formulated at the Madras Café,” Jayatilleka said. Political commentators in Chennai are of the view that Thursday’s Assembly resolution has been done with an eye on the by-poll to the Assembly to be held from Yercaud next month.