Pattali Makkal Katchi, another constituent of the National Democratic Alliance condemned the invitation sent to Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi on Monday. In a release issued on Friday, party founder S Ramadoss asked Modi to reconsider the decision to invite Rajapaksa for the function as the latter is responsible for massive ethnic pogrom in Sri lanka.
The MDMK led by Vaiko, another constituent of the NDA, had come out on Wednesday criticising the invitation sent to Rajapaksa for the swearing-in ceremony.Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa too wrote to the Prime Minister-designate saying that in the backdrop of the ties between the State and Central Governments, the invitation to Rajapaksa could have been avoided.
The PMK, which contested eight seats in the 2014 lok Sabha election could win only one seat, that of Anbumani Ramadoss, son of Ramadoss. Even Vaiko, the man with an acerbic tongue on the Sri lankan ethnic Tamil issue, lost the election much to the surprise of the proponents of the Eelam concept.
Though the 2014 lok Sabha elections proved once again that the ethnic Tamil issue in the Island nation does not have any kind of impact in Tamil Nadu, supporters of the Eelam with the help of a section of pro-Eelam media is struggling hard to make a halo around the Tamil issue, according to political commentator B Haran. “The MDMK fought the election only on the basis of ethnic Tamil issue in the island nation and the party paid for it dearly,” he said.
Meanwhile, veteran political commentator Tamilaruvi Manian, who played a key role in bringing DMDK, MDMK and the PMK to the NDA, blamed Ramadoss and Vijayakanth for the poor showing of the BJP-led front in Tamil Nadu. “Ramadoss goofed up the whole campaign by refusing to share the stage with the remaining constituents. He campaigned only for his son Anbumani who contested from Dharmapuri,” pointed out Manian.
He said the delay in the announcement of Vijayakanth, that he would join hands with the NDA too played an equal role in the decimation of the NDA in Tamil Nadu. “Vijayakanth did not make any announcement about his preference for the NDA in the party meet, held at Ulundurpet in February 2014. Both Vijayakanth and Ramdoss did not gel well,” he said. According to Manian, the possibility of the continuation of the NDA in Tamil Nadu in its present form looks bleak.