TNA upbeat over India relations

Following its first official visit to India last month, Sri Lanka’s largest Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) is "reassured" by Delhi’s thinking on the Tamil question in the island, party officials told reporters.

A delegation led Parliamentary Group leader R. Sampanthan held "cordial, comprehensive and productive" meetings with top Indian officials, including National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan, Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed and Foreign Secretary-designate Shivshankar Menon, the sources said.

The TNA leadership hoped to meet with India’s Premier in future, but was pleased Dr. Manmohan Singh "is taking a personal interest in the Tamil question," a member of the TNA delegation told TamilNet.

A much-hoped for though unscheduled meeting with India’s Premier did not take place, but the top Indian officials the TNA delegation met with had assured them that Dr. Singh was taking “a personal interest” in the Tamil question and would engage directly with President Mahinda Rajapakse on developments in Sri Lanka, according to the TNA sources.

Speaking to reporters in India later, Mr. Sampanthan, who was upbeat on the outcome of the India visit, said, “the visit has brought New Delhi a lot closer to the Tamils of Sri Lanka.”

“After a long time we (Tamils) have been able to re-establish contact with New Delhi,” he said.

India had maintained a distance from Tamil groups from Sri Lanka since the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, which Delhi blames on the LTTE.

Asked if the TNA’s inability to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on this visit was a snub, Mr. Sampanthan said no date and time had been fixed for a meeting.

The TNA leadership was keen to meet Dr. Singh in the future and would continue to keep him briefed on developments through the top-level Indian officials they met instead, TNA officials told Tamilnet.

The TNA delegation met with the top Indian officials on Wednesday Sep 21 and Thursday Sep. 22.

On Wednesday the delegation met with Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed and Foreign Secretary-designate Shivshankar Menon for a lengthy discussion on the Tamil question.

On Thursday they met with National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan for an hour-long discussion, from 4 to 5 p.m. on the humanitarian and security crisis in Sri Lanka’s Northeast.

Their visit to Delhi was arranged around an invitation by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), which is India’s premier foreign affairs think tank, enjoying close links with the Indian ministry of External Affairs.

In the wake of the meetings, the TNA delegation was “greatly encouraged at the extent to which [the Indian government] was already aware of the considerable difficulties of the Tamil people in Sri Lanka,” the TNA parliamentarian said.

Among the issues discussed were the severe humanitarian crisis amongst the Tamils of Sri Lanka, the military agenda of the Sri Lankan state and the Norwegian peace-process, according to the TNA sources.

 “We are here to urge India to get the Sri Lankan government to behave in a civilised manner, to stop the killing of innocent Tamil civilians by aerial bombings. The present situation is like how it was in 1983, when as many as 250,000 people were displaced,” Mr. Sampanthan said.

“I do not think anyone else can play as effective a role as India in restoring peace between the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups,” he said, insisting that LTTE was not averse to such a settlement.