30 March 2013-Days after the DMK pulled out of the Centre and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa barred Sri Lankan cricketers from playing in Chennai, the Centre has taken a tough stand on politics over Sri Lankan Tamils.
India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has rejected the Tamil Nadu Assembly resolution against Colombo.
The resolution sought a separate Eelam for Sri Lankan Tamils and said Sri Lanka should not be treated as a friendly country by India.
Speaking to CNN-IBN, Khurshid said while the government was sensitive to Tamil concerns, it won’t accept such demands.
“I take it on board that there are very strong feelings in Tamil Nadu and not just of other parties, but our own party members have very strong feelings. And we have taken those feelings on board. These feelings are not entirely out of sync with what many people in the world think,” he said.
“At the same time we do believe that the negotiation we have done with Sri Lanka, the dialogue we have with Sri Lanka and the effort we have made with Sri Lanka is equally important,” Khurshid said.
On the resolution adopted by the Tamil Nadu Assembly, he said, “the rest of India is not supporting this.”
“If all of India was supporting it, it would be another matter. But if one state supports something we are sensitive to their concerns, but we don’t have to necessarily accept everything they say,” he added.
