Seshadri Chari, National Convener of BJP's Foreign Policy Cell, today denied a report quoting him as saying that India has told Sri Lanka that the Tamils issue should be resolved for making progress on bilateral trade and commerce.
Referring to a PTI report from Singapore last week in this regard, he said he never spoke these words in a seminar there.
Chari said in Colombo, which he had visited from July 20 to 22, he had expressed his opinion that the Tamils issue was an internal matter of Sri Lanka and should not be internationalised.
"I am a votary of greater trade and commerce with Sri Lanka," he said in a statement here.
However, PTI stands by its story which was based on a tape-recorded interview Mr. Chari had given in Singapore to the PTI correspondent on July 25 evening on the sidelines of the seminar he had attended.
