By IANS,
Chennai : Congress president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday said the Sri Lankan government was being persuaded to amend its constitution to provide a political solution to the Tamil issue in the island nation.
“The Tamil issue is close to our hearts and significant progress has been made in the rehabilitation of the internally displaced Tamils in the island nation. We are pressing Sri Lanka to make constitutional amendments to solve the problem,” Gandhi said while addressing a huge election rally here.
She said India has provided large sums of money for the rehabilitation of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Expressing pain at the killings of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, she said: “We have been assured (by the Sri Lankan government) that there will be no firing on our fishermen.”
According to her, the Congress party believed in inclusive development and therefore is part of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) government in Tamil Nadu as the latter too shared similar values.
“The Congress believes in inclusive development. The fruits of development should be shared equitably. The Congress is party of DPA (Democratic Progressive Alliance) because DMK also shares Congress’ vision,” Gandhi said.
Praising Tamil Nadu’s socio-economic progress, Gandhi said the achievements were due to the effective governance of the DMK and also the extension of full support by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Appealing to the people to vote for the DMK-led alliance in the upcoming assembly polls, she said the requests put forward to her by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M. Karunanidhi will be worked on.
Earlier, addressing the rally, Karunanidhi requested the Congress president to take up the issues like inter-linking of southern rivers, securing back the rights for Indian fishermen to fish around the Katchatheevu island and implementation of the Sethusamudram Canal project.
Referring to the long delay in settling the cases related to sharing of the Cauvery river water and the Mullaiperiyar Dam, Karunanidhi requested Gandhi to chalk out ways with the central government to cut down the adjournments granted in the cases.