Lankan president should empower Tamils: SM Krishna
Chennai: India wants Sri Lanka to empower the minority Tamil speaking people through a political process and open a new chapter in the island nation’s history, external affairs minister, SM Krishna said here today.
“We also want the Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa to create a situation where the minority Tamil speaking people are empowered through political process and open a new chapter in Sri Lankan history”, the Union Minister told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
India was for the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Lankan Constitution conferring equal rights to people, he said after delivering Rajaji memorial lecture.
The 13th amendment gave effect to the devolution provisions of the Indo-Lanka Accord, signed in July 1987.
Asked if India sought to play a key role in Lankan affairs, he said New Delhi would “assist the friendly power in whatever manner possible.”
Delivering the Rajaji memorial lecture, Krishna also said he was not going to contest elections anymore. Money, muscle and state power was a deadly combination often used to perpetuate oneself in power, he said.
Krishna said the power of wealth was wreaking havoc on elections. “I’m not going to contest any more elections,” he
said.
Recalling the Independence struggle, Krishna said the Indian freedom movement was a glorious chapter in human history when completely unarmed people rejected an unjust system using the tool of non-violence and resolved to create a new world on the basis of high moral principles.
He said Rajaji who led themovement from the front and spent years in prison saw this liberation not merely in its political, economic, and social dimensions.
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Mr Krishna,
Thank you for your advice. We have heard your wise words and we will give political power to the tamils by giving a cabinet rank portfolio to Col Karuna; we have already given political power to the eastern tamils by appointing Pillaiyan as the Chief Minister which is equivalent to Mr Karunanidhi’s post in South India. We will have provincial council polls in the north shortly, where our party, the UPFA will win. Then, we will make KP the Chief Minister of the Nortern Province. We will then have 3 powerful politicians leading the tamils. The fourth is Douglas Devananda who has been untiring in his efforts to uplift the tamils. One of your brothers, Mr Thondaman who is a Minister will be made Chief Minsiter for the Tea Estates. The leaders, except Mr T, all have LTTE backgrounds and the LTTE’s claim that they are the sole representatives of the Tamils is coming true. If you can help us bring Prabaharan back to life, we will make him a Prime Minister for the North and East and give him his own Parliament.
So, Mr Krishna, thank you again for your advice and thank you for all your help including that given to us by Menon, Narayan, Alok Prasad, Nirupama Rao and Vijay Nambiar.
Mr Krishna
We have already empowered the Tamils in North and East. They have elected their own Chief Ministers and MPs. They have their own Provincil Council which is a local parliament. This power they did not have under VP the despotic evil murderer whose aspiration of a Tamil nation in Sri Lanka for the Tamil people led to 30 years of utter misery and economic ruin. All we ask the Tamil people is do not ask for autonomy of a so-called Tamil eelam state. We will never divide our beloved motherland. Tamil people form one nation with the other races in this land. They are not a minority. The only division is patriots and those who are not patriots. The latter froms the minority.