TNA MPs Meet India's Foreign Ministry Top Brass

Seek Meetings With PM and NSA

Rajesh Sundaram, 20 September, 2006( New Delhi)


Visiting Tamil Members of Parliament from Sri Lanka have met Indian junior foreign Minister E Ahamed and foreign secretary designate Shiv Shankar Menon in Delhi Today.

" We just finished out meeting with the minister of state and Mr Menon. We have sought appointments with the Prime Minister and the NSA. We hope to meet them tomorrow or the day after." Selvam Adaikalanathan, a member of the delegation told this writer.

He refused to give any further details about the meeting.

The group of 5 MPs are part of the Tamil National alliance, a grouping with 21 MPs in the Sri Lankan Parliament, which is known to be sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The group consisting of R. Sampanthan, G.G. Ponnambalam, Mavai Senathirajah, Suresh Premachandran and Selvam Adaikalanathan are here on the invitation of the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), which is linked to the Indian foreign office.

" The message from India to Sri Lanka should be that they must share power with the Tamils. If Sri Lanka wants its unity and integrity it will have to deliver politically." the leader of the delegation R Sampanthan told this writer in Delhi today.

The group is expected to lobby with the Indian government to interact with all parties to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka including the Tamil Tiger rebels.


The Tamil Tiger rebels were banned in India 15 years ago after the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Significantly, this is the first time since then that the Indian government is having direct consultations with a group known as being openly sympathetic to the rebels at this level.


Indian foreign office officials say this does not indicate any shift in India's Sri Lanka police and that it is part of the wider consultation India is having with various Tamil political leaders from Sri Lanka.



Indian Prime minister recently met Douglas Devananda, leader of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Freedom Party at Havana.

He is a staunch critic of the tamil tiger rebels and has survived various assassination attempts blamed on the rebels.


Devananda was part of the delegation led by President Mahinda Rajapakse that met Prime minister Manmohan singh at the sidelines of the Non-aligned movement summit meeting.

Another critic of the rebels, former MP and president of the Tamil United Liberation Front V Anandasangaree too is expected to meet the Indian prime minister soon.

The Indian government has so far refused to engage in talks with pro-rebel groups.

Interestingly, the meeting comes at a time when the rebels stand diplomatically isolated. They were recently proscribed by the EU and Canada. They have also suffered major military defeats in their former strongholds in the East and North of the Island.

The Tamil MPs say they have also expressed concern at the growing military relations between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. They say the supply of military hardware by Pakistan is making a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict difficult.

" Pakistan's supply of military hardware to Sri Lanka is a definite setback for those who seek a negotiated settlement to the conflict. They are supplying multi-barrel rocket launchers, tanks and a variety of offensive hardware to the sri lankan government distorting the balance. There is talk in Colombo about how Sri Lankan Air Force jets are being flown by Pakistan air force pilots." says Sampanthan.

The MPs are expected to hand over details of the involvement of Pakistan in the ethnic strife on the island, when they meet India's National Security Advisor M K Narayanan.

( Photo : Rajesh Sundaram)