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TNA to meet Indian PM in bid for Chennai talks venue

by Ranga Jayasuriya

The Tamil National Alliance hopes to meet the Indian Prime Minister and the other mainstream Indian politicians in a bid to pursuade India to accept the Tamil Tigers' request for Chennai as the venue for the negotiations, TULF Vanni district Parliamentarian A. Adaikkalanathan told the Daily News yesterday.

The LTTE at the very outset of the peace process proposed the South Indian city of Chennai as the venue for the negotiations pointing to logistical reasons and health of Anton Balasingham.

"The TNA has requested the Indian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka to arrange a meeting with Prime Minister Vajpayee. We also hope to meet the leaders of the other mainstream political parties including Congress leader Sonia Gandhi," Adaikkalanathan said.

He, however, added that the TNA was waiting till the return of the Indian High Commissioner who is currently in India.

"We hope we will have a reply by next week," he said. Asked whether the TNA hoped to discuss the matters relating to the de-proscription of the LTTE in India, he said the agenda of the proposed discussions was not fixed. But the de-proscription of the LTTE is a long standing demand of the TNA, he said. The LTTE was banned in India following the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi allegedly by a woman suicide bomber of the LTTE.

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