Congress MP accuses DMK of ‘betraying’ Sri Lankan Tamils

Congress member of Rajya Sabha, Dr EM Surdarsana Natchiappan, said the DMK has failed to serve the Tamil cause in Sri Lanka and missed a great opportunity to secure them a homeland in the island republic.

Explaining his contention while talking to media in New Delhi, the Congress member said that under the UN system, one has to fulfill three conditions to make a claim for a separate country. First there must be a recognisable territory, second it should be inhabited and third there should be an authority ruling the territory which has the support of the people.

“All the three existed for the LTTE in 2001 when it was in the control of the North and East of Sri Lanka and had the support of the people living there. The territory was independent of the government in the sense that no revenue from various taxes was going to Colombo. The writ of LTTE ran in the areas. It was a virtual government”, he said.

The Congress member further said: “The LTTE failed to exploit the situation to move the UN for recognition. In India the BJP-led NDA government was in power at the time and all the LTTE supporters ~ DMK, MDMK and PMK were sharing power at the Centre. What did they do? There was a similar situation in East Pakistan during December 1971 at the end of the Indo-Pak war. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi acted in time and recognised the authority in Dhaka. In a matter of days, most of the world, including the UN recognized the new nation Bangladesh”.

Dr Natchiappan said in the post-LTTE Sri Lanka the Colombo government has started working to bring a demographic change, which is alarming.