By IANS,
Chennai : Blaming the Indian government’s “casual attitude” for the killing of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said her party would raise the issue in parliament.
“The attacks on the Indian fishermen have been going on for long and the centre has failed to prevent it. Had only the government taken stern action, the recent killing of two fishermen could have been prevented,” the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha told reporters here.
Earlier in the day, Sushma Swaraj had visited the families of two fishermen killed last month and gave them Rs.200,000 each as a token of assistance on behalf of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
She said she was shocked to hear from External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna that the Indo-Sri-Lankan Joint Working group is non functional and will be soon activated.
Declaring the BJP’s core group would discuss the issue of demanding retrieval of Katchatheevu island ceded to Sri Lanka in 1974, Sushma Swaraj said the issue of attacks on Indian fishermen will be raised by her party in the parliament.
She also asserted that the party has not changed its demand for constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the 2G spectrum allotment issue even after the arrest of former communications minister A. Raja by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“Our demand for JPC stands as it involves governance and other larger issues like the role of corporates,” she said while declining to reveal whether the party would stall the functioning of the budget session of parliament, like the winter session.
She said the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would chalk out a strategy for the budget session.
“Parliament will function if the government concedes to the demand of JPC,” she added.
Charging Communications Minister Kapil Sibal with speaking “untruths” on the spectrum allotment issue, Sushma Swaraj claimed he was quoting only those portions favourable to the government from the Shivraj Patil Committee report.