The head of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Tamil Nadu claimed that if Narendra Modi was the Indian prime minister in 2009 the massacres at Mullivaikkal would not have happened, as he controversially addressed a genocide memorial event this week.
K Annamalai, who recently returned from a visit to Jaffna, told the crowd in Chennai that there was “no one other than Narendra Modi” to solve the Eelam Tamil conflict in Sri Lanka. “The BJP's position is not to create problems but to solve them,” he added. “India is carefully adjusting the Sri Lankan problem like a sari falling on a thorn.”
The event which commemorated the Tamil genocide was also attended by poet Kasi Anandan, Eelam Tamil politician MK Shivajilingam, veteran Tamil Nadu politican Nedumaran, and senior All India Congress Party member Trichy Veluchamy amongst others.
The memorial meeting and panel discussion caused controversy with its decision to include the BJP speaker. The Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, the May 17 Movement and the Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam were amongst organisations to boycott the meeting this week.
