Chennai: Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday articulated Tamil Nadu’s collective political outrage over Union Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju’s assertion that Sri Lankan defence personnel would continue training in India, saying it smacked of total insensitivity.
“I am surprised to learn that the Government of India has openly declared that the said training will go on since Sri Lanka is a friendly country. This betrays the total insensitivity on the part of the Government of India towards the views of my Government as well as the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu,” Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Chief Minister reiterated that the Centre should give up its condemnable attitude and show more regard for the sentiments of the people of Tamil Nadu by sending the Lankan defence personnel back to home immediately. The Centre’s failure to handle the issue with the sensitivity it deserved was apparent from the fact that all major parties panned Raju and demanded that the Lankan officers be sent back immediately. The DMK, an UPA ally, questioned the validity of Raju’s description of Lanka as India’s friend.
In her latest missive to the PM, Jayalalithaa recalled her previous letter dated August 25, wherein she had categorically stated that the ongoing training to the two Lankan defence personnel at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington in Tamil Nadu, should be immediately halted and the personnel should be sent back to Sri Lanka. “Instead of acceding to my request, I am surprised to learn that the Government of India has openly declared that the said training will go on since Sri Lanka is a friendly country,” the Chief Minister said.
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