Indian parties against resolution on SL

20 March 2013 05:55 pm Views - 7010

The all-party meeting convened by the Indian government to explore the possibility of Parliament adopting a resolution against Sri Lanka on Wednesday night saw most parties opposing such a move, leaving no scope for it.

At the 90-minute meeting, only DMK and AIADMK supported the idea of bringing a resolution.

Sources said as most of the parties were not in favour, the idea is as good as given up.

Samajwadi Party, which supports the government from outside, said Sri Lanka is a friendly country and the Indian Parliament should not pass a resolution against it.

"We are with Lankan Tamils but there is no need for a resolution by Parliament as Lanka is the only country which stood with us during the 1962 China war.

"We have recently rejected Pakistan parliament resolution on Afzal Guru. How can we do the same to a friendly neighbour. At the UNHCR, India should do what is in the national interest and interst of Tamils of Lanka," said SP leader Rewati Raman Singh while emerging from the meeting convened by parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath.

JD(U) Sharad Yadav also echoed similar views at the meeting where he is understood to have questioned the logic of adopting a resolution against a sovereign nation.

He is believed to have told the meeting that if India has to provide relief to Sri Lankan Tamils, it should do so without antagonising the host country, sources said.

Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath said the meeting was "inconclusive". He said the meeting had been called to end the impasse in Parliament over the Lankan Tamil issue but "it has not produced any results".

Leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj questioned why all parties had been called for the meeting to discuss an issue which strictly is between the government and DMK.

DMK, which withdrew from the government yesterday, had demanded that government should get a resolution passed by Parliament against Sri Lanka.

Swaraj said the government had told the opposition that it wanted to hold the meeting to end the impasse in Parliament over Sri Lanka.

"We had never created the impasse. The impasse is between government and DMK and it is for them to sit together and resolve it," she said.

CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said the issue was between the government and DMK to settle.(PTI)