Chennai: The DMK Saturday said the sudden regime change in Sri Lanka encompasses “several mysteries” and has triggered concern among Tamilnadu fishermen and Tamils in the island nation.
DMK president M K Stalin, also the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said the return of Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa as the country’s new Prime Minister has shocked Tamils across the world.
“The changes that have occurred in the Sri Lankan government in a single night encompasses several mysteries and have threatened the Tamils there who are denied their rights,” he alleged.
Also, the developments have triggered concern among Tamilnadu fishermen, he said.
Stalin cited the recent Delhi visits of Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe and media reports about Maithripala Sirisena alleging that Indian intelligence agency RAW hatched a plot to assassinate him.
Sirisena, however, later denied making such allegations. The background to Rajapaksa assuming office all of a sudden as Sri Lanka’s premier, though he doesn’t have a majority, has shocked Tamils, Stalin claimed.
The DMK chief alleged that Rajapaksa was behind the killing of Tamil people (during the civil war between Sri Lankan Army and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009) and Tamilnadu fishermen at the hands of the Lankan Navy during his tenure.
Ousted Lankan Prime Minister Wickremesinghe Saturday sought an emergency session of Parliament to prove his majority, as the island nation plunged into a constitutional crisis after President Sirisena sacked him and made former strongman Rajapaksa the new premier.
Stalin said “if such a situation continued in Sri Lanka”, it would become a challenge to India’s interests.
He asked the Centre to give clarifications on the recent visits of Lankan leaders and the allegations drawing RAW into a controversy.
Referring to the Tamilnadu government’s recent recommendation to Governor Banwarilal Purohit to release all convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the DMK leader asked the Centre to devote its “attention” to the matter and urged Purohit to take a favourable decision.