For the first time since he was appointed as the chairman of the Strategic Affairs Committee of the BJP, Subramanian Swamy was approached by the Tamil Nadu unit of the party seeking his help in getting the release of 79 fishing boats which are under Sri lankan custody.
H Raja, national secretary, BJP, led a five-member delegation of Alliance For Release of Innocent Fishermen Trust on Friday morning to Swamy’s office in Chennai where they submitted a memorandum to him to intervene to get the mechanised fishing boats released from the custody of Sri lankan authorities.
The BJP leader assured the delegates of the Alliance he would speak to the Sri lankan authorities during his forthcoming visit to the island nation. Swamy is delivering the first lalith Athulathmudali Memorial lecture at Colombo on November 26 on how to strengthen the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.
Interestingly, this is the first time the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP is making any contact with Swamy after his induction into the party in 2013. Though he had campaigned vigorously for the party in most of the States during the lok Sabha election, he was never approached by the Tamil Nadu unit for campaign or he was invited to the State party headquarters.
“Yes, some fishermen called on me on Friday with a request to help them get their boats released. They have also given me the details of the ownership of the boats. Ill go through the documents and after confirmation Ill take up the matter with the Sri lankan authorities,” Swamy told The Pioneer.