‘Insensitive’ Centre angers TN parties

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Leaders across the political spectrum in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday expressed disdain at the ‘insensitive’ stand taken by Delhi that the Sri Lankan military personnel would continue receiving training in Indian defence establishments, with chief minister J. Jayalalithaa demanding that the Union Government should give up such a “condemnable attitude”.

She dashed out yet another letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that his government “show more consideration and regard to the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu by sending the defence personnel back to Sri Lanka immediately”.

The AIADMK chief has been in the forefront of anti-Colombo campaign in Tamil Nadu. Her stout protest had forced Delhi to shift some Lankan military personnel being trained at the IAF station at suburban Tambaram to Yelahanka in Bengaluru last month.

Almost all the political parties, including the state Congress unit, besides several Tamil ‘nationalist’ outfits have been fighting against the Lankan military personnel landing in India for training at the various defence establishments.

TN leaders are understandably upset that another batch of Lankan military men have landed for training, this time at the famous Defence Services Staff College at Wellington in Ooty.

The Monday declaration from minister of state Pallam Raju in the defence ministry that India would continue to train the Lankans in the interests of good neighbourly relations only exacerbated the Tamil distress.

“It was an atrocious statement. Centre should not play with fire. Violent protests may erupt in Tamil Nadu and India’s unity could be jeopardized”, warned MDMK chief Vaiko.

DMK president M. Karunanidhi, a UPA partner, wondered how India could hope for great ties with Sri Lanka when that country was working closely with China.

The Lankan forces have set up bases in Tamil areas in the island with Chinese help and the Chinese defence minister Liang Quanglie was visiting the island to discuss the issue, said the DMK chief, claiming that China had executed 14 projects in Sri Lanka at a cost of Rs 36,000 crore and also built a school for the wards of the Sri Lankan military personnel at a cost of Rs 9 crore. Sri Lanka had signed agreement with China for the purchase of MA-60 passenger aircraft, he said.

DMDK leader Vijayakanth raised the question why Lanka did not feel the need for good rapport with India while giving away the land earmarked for the Indian High Commission in Colombo to the Chinese “thereby smearing mud on India’s face”.

22 arrested as protests continue in wellington

Hanuman Sena cadres staged a dharna near the Manekshaw Bridge here on Tuesday protesting against the two Lankan Army officers undergoing training here.

The huge posse of police posted at the Wellington area promptly arrested 22 cadres of Hanuman Sena in the morning.

But with tension mounting in the region over the Sri Lankan officers, the police is on tenterhooks and is keeping round the clock vigil in and around the Wellington cantonment area.