By IANS,
Chennai : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday distanced itself from an “all-party” resolution that says all MPs from Tamil Nadu would resign if no effective steps were initiated by the central government to end the sufferings of innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka.
“While the CPI-M opposes India’s military aid to Sri Lanka resulting in sufferings of its Tamil minority and its military establishment’s attempts to hammer a solution by force, (CPI-M) representatives clearly stated during the all-party meeting (here on Oct 13) that decisions (of all Tamil Nadu MPs) to resign from parliament would be taken individually by the participating (political) parties,” the CPI-M said in a press statement.
“The CPI-M calls for a solution to the long-standing problem of the Tamil race through peaceful dialogue between the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) and the Sri Lankan government eschewing the armed confrontation,” it added.
On Oct 14, the Congress party’s Tamil Nadu unit chief K.V. Thangkabalu had told IANS that a solution to the vexed issue could only be within the ambit of a united Sri Lanka through peaceful means, though it agreed to the all party meeting’s decision for MPs from Tamil Nadu resigning from parliament en masse.
Tamil Nadu’s main opposition AIADMK had termed the all-party meet as a “stunt” and asked the ruling DMK to sacrifice power if it was serious about solving the issue.
Its leader J. Jayalalitha has repeatedly stated that her party is strongly opposed secessionist tendencies in any nation and that the banned LTTE draws its power through terrorist violence.
So far 16 Lok Sabha MPs and four members of the Rajya Sabha belonging to the DMK have handed in their post-dated resignations to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
Karunanidhi, who had announced Saturday that the resignations would be handed over to the appropriate authorities Oct 29 if no steps were taken by the Manmohan Singh government to end the alleged killings of innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka, Monday welcomed the moves of the central government Monday.