India is pressing Sri Lanka to amend the Constitution to “guarantee and ensure equal rights and equal status” to Sri Lankan Tamils, Congress President and United Progressive Alliance chairperson, Ms Sonia Gandhi, said here on Tuesday.
“In our neighbourhood, there is no issue closer to our heart than the rights of the Sri Lankan Tamil people. There has been significant progress last year and India had committed and provided large sums of money for the relief and rehabilitation of the affected people. We will do everything in our power to rehabilitate them,” she said, addressing an election rally on the Island Ground along with Dravida Munetra Kazhagam President and Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi.
She said the Union Government was spending substantial amount on rehabilitation of Sri Lankan Tamils and “we will continue our efforts at rehabilitation” [of the Tamils displaced in the war between the Sri Lankan army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam].
She also spoke of the firing on Tamil fishermen in the international waters which claimed a few lives and promised that it would not happen again. “We are deeply pained that some lives of fishermen have been lost. We have been assured that there would be no firing in the future and we will continue to work to ensure this commitment is met,” she said. Ms Gandhi, who described Tamil Nadu as one of the frontline States which had achieved development in various spheres, spoke of the “tremendous benefits” it enjoyed thanks to its rapport with the Central Government. She said DMK was in the alliance of the Congress because “it shares our vision of inclusive development”.
She said the Congress had a different model of development. It aimed at inclusive development which meant that “fruits must be shared equitably by all sections of the poor, deprived and neglected”.
“The Central government and the State government will work for faster and more inclusive development,” she added. She was happy to note that the State Government headed by Mr Karunanidhi had been implementing several welfare schemes including free electricity for farmers which had become ‘an example for the rest of the country”.
Similarly, its projects for the welfare of the deprived sections such as Dalits had become an example for many other States to emulate. This was why she was seeking votes for a government “which fulfils its promises”.
Mr Karunanidhi, who virtually turned this opportunity into one of seeking the support of the Central Government on various issues bedevilling Tamil Nadu, pleaded for nationalisation of rivers as that alone could be a “long term solution” for its river water problems. “As the first phase, steps should be taken to link all the rivers in the South and funds for the same should be provided to the State Governments,” he added.
While expressing his happiness over the Central Government acceding to his request for granting classical language status to Tamil, he urged it to make Tamil one among the official languages in the country. While seeking the restoration of education to the State List, he pointed out that a number of committees had recommended so.
Explaining how Indian fishermen had been subjected to untold suffering because of the ceding of Kacha Theevu, Mr Karunanidhi requested the Central Government to get it back. “This is not an issue of rights but that of lives.”
Lamenting that a number of river water litigations had been dragging on in the courts, including that of the Cauvery, Mullaperiyar and Palar, he pleaded for an early solution. “Only that can prevent anarchy”, he said and added that he was not giving this as an “advice” but as a “caution”. Leaders of other constituents of the DMK-led Democratic Progressive Alliance addressed the meeting.