PM to send envoy to Chennai to discuss Sri Lanka issue

Before Tamil identity and the 'genocide' of Tamils in Sri Lanka becomes an issue, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has decided to act.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today said Singh had assured him that a representative would be sent from Delhi to Chennai to address the state's concerns arising out of the volatile situation in neighbouring Sri Lanka.

With the atmosphere rapidly assuming the proportions of the mid-1980s when strafing by helicopter gunships led to the migration of Tamils from Sri Lanka into India and the deterioration of law and order, leading to virtual political hysteria in Tamil Nadu, the PM obviously wants to nip any pro-LTTE consolidation in Tamil Nadu, in the bud.

At a meeting yesterday, DMK and its allies expressed concern over innocent people being killed in mine blasts and aerial bombing in the island nation, leading to an influx of refugees into Tamil Nadu, and wanted the Centre to take steps to bring peace.

In a statement, the CM said he had spoken to the PM over phone this morning. Singh said a representative would be sent from Delhi to Chennai and assured him that appropriate steps would be taken to discuss the Sri Lankan situation, Karunanidhi said.

On the other end of the spectrum, while the most vocal leader of the Tamils, Vaiko, has said very little yet, former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who has Z-plus security only on account of the perceived threat to her from the LTTE, today expressed her anguish over the killing of innocent people in the fight between the Sri Lankan Army and the LTTE, and demanded that the Centre take immediate action in bringing peace in the strife-torn island republic.

She said in a statement that the fighting resulting in influx of Tamil refugees to India was causing a lot of mental agony to the people in India. "Under these circumstances, the Centre should take immediate steps to bring peace in Sri Lanka," she said.

India's options in the given circumstances are limited. The dialogue between the Sweden-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and the LTTE has virtually broken down and the SLMM has asked both parties to the conflict to clarify whether they still want it to be present in the dialogue. The Lankan government has said it does, while the LTTE has not replied.

India's greatest fear is that if full-fledged war - it is war in some parts of the island already - breaks out and there is an exodus from the island, the political and material situation in Tamil Nadu will be badly disrupted.