INDIA’S MANMOHAN SINGH GIVES FIRM ASSUARANCE TO VAIKO
IT WILL NOT GIVE ANY ARMS TO FIGHT GANDHI KILLERS

By Walter Jayawardhana

India’s Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh gave a firm assurance to Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko Gopalaswamy, a public campaigner for India’s banned terrorist movement Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , that India would not offer any military help to the Sri Lanka government to fight the Tamil Tigers.

The prime minister also said he will meet the proxy party of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Tamil National Alliance, at Vaiko’s request.

Man Mohan Singh who heads the Indian Congress Party government who’s past leader Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by the Tamil Tigers told Vaiko ''India will not do anything that will strengthen Sri Lankan military,''

Vaiko Gopalaswamy called on the prime minister after leading a demonstration outside the Sri Lankan High Commission in New Delhi protesting against the military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE has been waging war against the Sri Lanka government ever since the ceasefire agreement was signed even assassinating the extremely pro-Indian Sri Lankan foreign minister Laxman Kadirgamar, for a long time. LTTE’s low-key war was intensified against the Mahinda Rajapaksa government openly breaching the Ceasefire agreement for the last eight months.

It was involved in the largest civilian massacre of 68 bus passengers in June, the biggest ever since the controversial ceasefire agreement was signed. Vaiko Gopalaswamy, lived with Velupillai Prabhakaran in a military bunker at a time when Indian soldiers were tortured and killed by him. He was once imprisoned by a Tamil Nadu government under a law called POTA for campaigning for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam openly while it was a banned terrorist movement in India.

Man Mohan Singh accepted another request of the MDMK delegation to meet 22 Tamil MPs of the Tamil National Alliance of Sri Lanka. They were elected to the parliament when free elections were blocked and they as representatives of the LTTE were allowed to be elected to the parliament by virtually stuffing ballot boxes. Since then the TNA has been called the proxy party of the LTTE.
“When Dr. Singh said he was willing to receive the people's representatives he was not telling the truth and was involved only in opportunistic politics”, a Tamil politician who was not allowed to contest the last parliamentary election by the LTTE said.

During the 90-minute demonstration, Vaiko and his political associates demanded that Sri Lanka immediately pull out its forces from the Jaffna peninsula, which is sovereign territory of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. .

They also wanted India to give asylum to all the Tamils from Sri Lanka and raise the financial assistance to such refugees. In the past with the refugees the LTTE went to India and assassinated all its political opponents like Pathmanabha on the Indian soil with impunity. All those activities culminated with the assassination of the head of the Congress party of India, Rajiv Gandhi. The assassinated leader’s widow Sonia Gandhi currently heads the party.

The meeting at Dr Singh's 7 Race Course residence, between Vaiko and the Indian Prime Minister lasted about 20 minutes.

In the five-page memorandum, the MDMK urged India to 'insist upon the Sri Lankan government to stop forthwith the onslaught of armed forces against the Tamil and honor the sincere efforts of Norwegian government for peace talks by fulfilling the commitment' made by Colombo in the last round of the talks in Norway. The LTTE was making the peace talks an interval to collect arms and walked out of the peace talks long before the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power. It never could be persuaded to go back to the negotiating table.

The party said it was a matter of grave concern that Sri Lanka was acquiring enormous sophisticated weapons from Pakistan.

''We understand that on August 14, 2006, two shiploads of Pakistan weapons have reached Sri Lanka. With ulterior diabolic design Sri Lanka government is hobnobbing with Pakistan. The ISI of Pakistan is operating in Sri Lanka with sinister plans which will be detrimental to the peace and security of India, particularly Tamil Nadu,'' Vaiko led MDMK said.