India cannot interfere in Lanka - Congress

Indian Govt respects sovereignty of other nations, says spokesman:

NEW DELHI: The Congress has said that it has conveyed the concerns of the Tamil Nadu parties to the Sri Lankan Government but indicated that the Indian Government has limitations on the issue of Sri Lankan Army offensive.

“Those who make demands about other sovereign countries should know that India’s sovereignty runs through the boundaries of India,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said yesterday.

Singhvi said the Indian Government cannot interfere with the sovereignty of other countries.

His comments came as a reaction to an all-party meeting in Tamil Nadu asking the Central Government to ask Sri Lanka to end the offensive in Tamil areas within a fortnight failing which MPs from the state would resign from Parliament.

Singhvi said issues of and conduct of foreign relations should be left for the Centre.

“That is something in the exclusive domain of the Centre (foreign relation issue),” he told the Times Now Channel.

He said “while condemning any violent act in another country, I do not think anything

should be done or asked from the Central Government.” Another spokesman Manish Tewari said the concerns of the parties in Tamil Nadu have been conveyed to Sri Lanka through the Deputy High Commissioner.

Meanwhile, reacting to Tamil Nadu MPs’ warning that they will quit if a solution to the Sri Lankan Tamil problem is not worked out within two weeks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the Lanka issue is a cause for serious concern.

He said there should be a negotiated political settlement that respects Sri Lankan sovereignty and rights of Tamils.

Meanwhile, AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa described as “drama” Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi’s call asking the State MPs to quit if the Centre did not intervene within a fortnight into the Sri Lankan army’s ongoing offensive.

The resolution, adopted in the all party meeting convened by Karunanidhi, was only a “drama enacted by him”, Jayalalithaa said in a statement in Chennai.

The leader of Opposition in the State assembly said if one went through the resolution, it looked like Karunanidhi was supporting the LTTE.

The “Indian Government does not have powers to stop the civil war in Sri Lanka.

If we interfere in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka, it will open the floodgates for other countries to interfere in Indian affairs, which will endanger the sovereignty of the country.

I am surprised that even this basic fact is not known for a person, who had been the Chief Minister for five terms”, she said. The AIADMK had boycotted the meeting convened by Karunanidhi on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the respected military website Strategy Page noted yesterday that the current head of the Tamil Nadu government has long been pro-LTTE, and is using Tamil nationalism to consolidate his political power in Tamil Nadu.

“But efforts to force the Indian government to shift their support to the LTTE will fail. It’s all political theatre.

The LTTE is calling in all its political favours in a desperate effort to stop the Sri Lankan military offensive. But nothing appears capable of halting the campaign, and the LTTE is doomed. It’s only a matter of time (weeks or months),” the Website added.

(TOI)