Yogarajan under fire from business leaders of Indian origin

by P. Krishnaswamy

UNP national list parliamentarian R. Yogarajan came under fire from business leaders of Indian origin for criticising them for having represented Sri Lanka's case to India in the run-up to the US-sponsored resolution at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva. Members of the Council of National Unity (CNU), comprising mostly Colombo businessmen of Indian origin held a peaceful procession and presented a memorandum to the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo seeking India's support to defeat the US-sponsored resolution.

The Colombo Jewellers' Association, Colombo Textile Association and the Colombo Traders' Associations are the main constituents of the CNU which represents the bulk of the Indian origin business community.

A leading businessman and patron of the CNU Periyasamy Sundaralingam told the Sunday Observer that Yogarajan's recent statement made to a Tamil-language daily had created a furore among the Government leadership and the Tamil business community. Yogarajan has, in his strongly-worded statement, branded them as "shameless Government stooges who have forgotten their Indian connections" and has called upon the Tamil Nadu Government to ban them visiting their kith and kin and on matters relating to their properties.

CNU Chairman D. Eassuwaren, a leading industrialist and Consul-General for Mauritius in Colombo, Committee member Kulandan Palaniyandy, the President of the Colombo Traders' Association (CTA) and Sundaralingam said that although the CNU members are of Indian origin they consider Sri Lanka, where they and their offsprings were born and bred, as their motherland and the handing over of the memorandum to the Indian High Commission was a gesture of patriotism.

Diplomats at the Indian High Commission welcomed the memorandum from those of Indian origin domiciled in Sri Lanka.

They are unable to understand as to why Yogarajan has branded it as an "anti-Indian" approach, they said.