By IANS,
Chennai : Most of the Tamil Nadu opposition parties Tuesday boycotted an all-party meeting called by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi to discuss the plight of minority Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Opposition parties including the AIADMK, DMDK, MDMK, Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) stayed away from the meet, officials said.
Karunanidhi announced that he would lead a delegation of legislators to New Delhi Dec 4. Meanwhile, all Tamil Nadu MPs will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Nov 28 to press for a cease fire in Sri Lanka. They would also urge the central government to ask Sri Lanka to start negotiations for a political solution to the issue, a government statement said.
Karunidhi had Monday said that the urgent meeting had been called to discuss the “worsening situation of suffering Tamils of Sri Lanka”.
The PMK and MDMK have been demanding that Sri Lanka ensure that no member of the minority Tamil community in the country is killed during military action against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
This is the second meeting of political parties called by Karunanidhi. The earlier meeting in October, demanding proactive action by India to force Colombo to halt military operations against Tamils and stop military aid to Sri Lanka, had resulted in a unanimous resolution by all political parties represented in parliament to resign from their seats by Oct 29.
Though all the MPs of the ruling DMK in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha had handed in their post-dated resignations to the chief minister, they were not forwarded to the relevant authorities following a meeting between Karunanidhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Oct 26.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited New Delhi earlier this month and ruled out cessation of the war against LTTE but promised to avoid killing of Tamil civilians and safeguard their interests.