Leaders of Sri Lankan Tamil parties should increase their engagement with India for resolving the Tamil issue, says Varatharaja Perumal

Tamil leaders must engage India to resolve Tamil issue: Varatharaja Perumal. Former CM of North-Eastern Province of Sri Lanka urges Tamil parties to pressure India for devolution of power. 13th Amendment of Sri Lanka Constitution should be properly implemented. India should provide permanent documents, property rights to refugees from Sri Lanka. Tamil leaders must engage India to resolve Tamil issue: Varatharaja Perumal urges Tamil parties to pressure India for devolution of power, implementation of 13th Amendment. India should provide permanent documents, property rights to refugees. #TamilIssue #Devolution #13thAmendment #India #SriLanka #TamilParties #VaratharajaPerumal

Leaders of Sri Lankan Tamil parties need to step up their engagement with India for resolving the Tamil issue, according to A. Varatharaja Perumal, former Chief Minister of the once-unified North-Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. 

In an interview with The Hindu after taking part in a book launch event in Coimbatore on Saturday, Mr. Varatharaja Perumal, who held the CM post nearly for one-and-a-half years during December 1988-March 1990 following the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, said there had to be pressure from the Tamil parties and their leaders, “who are not acting [in this regard].” 

Recalling how Tamil rebel groups and parties were, during 1983-87, in frequent contact with Indian leaders, both in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu, the former leader of the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) pointed out that a similar relationship did not exist now. “Merely sitting at a hotel in Jaffna and writing a letter to Prime Minister [Modi] would not work,” he observed.  

Conceding that the Indian government too had a responsibility on the Tamil question even though it could not do what it did between 1983 and 1990, the 70-year-old former CM, who shuttles between India and Sri Lanka, said: “The Government of India cannot act in isolation. It needs the support of Indian people and leaders. There should be a voice within India for devolution and the political settlement [to be worked out in Sri Lanka]. This can be possible only if the Tamil leaders maintain close ties with leaders in New Delhi and Tamil Nadu. So, the primary responsibility lies with them.”

Read also: Citing ‘inadequate progress’ on rights front, India urges Sri Lanka to keep its promises 

At the same time, no room should be given for any “extreme or radical” move, Mr\. Varatharaja Perumal hastened to add.  

Emphasising that the 13th Amendment of Sri Lankan Constitution, dealing with devolution through elected bodies of provincial councils, should be “properly” implemented, he said if it was interpreted on the lines of similar features of the Indian Constitution in India, “this will take care of 70% to 75% of the political issues.”