Dr. Subramanian Swamy dubs TNA and Vignes as 'Childish'

Dr. Subramanian Swamy castigated the Tamil National Alliance for its political duplicity and C.V. Vigneswaran, Chief Minister of the Northern Province for his desultory political stance.

Dr. Subramanian Swamy

Dr. Subramanian Swamy was in Sri Lanka on the invitation of the Bandaranaike Centre For International Studies (BCIS).

Chairman of the BCIS Sunimal Fernando told the Asian Tribune that they had invited the Chairman of BJP's Committee on Strategic Action, who was the former Union Minister Dr. Subramanian Swamy, and BJP members - namely Dr. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Dr. Chari Seshadri Ramanujan, Dr. Swapan Dasgupta and Prof. Madhav Nalapat for a public panel discussion.

Fernando said that the public panel discussion was on 'India under Modi: Relevance for the region and the world', at the BMICH recently.

Subsequently, Dr. Swamy, a five-time member of the Indian Parliament and who held a Union Ministerial portfolio twice, spoke to Asian Tribune's Chief Editor, K.T. Rajasingham.

When he pointed out that arrangements were being made for a delegation of the Tamil National Alliance to meet India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, that the solution to issues pertaining to the Tamils of Sri Lanka has to be found within Sri Lanka and not from outside.

He further assured this writer that in case the TNA delegation is invited for talks with the Indian Prime Minister, then it is important that we should have moderate Sri Lankan Tamil leaders, too, to meet the Indian Prime Minister and tell the other side of the story.

He described C.V. Vigneswaran's stance as being "childish" for being adamant and not accepting the invitation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in joining his delegation to participate in the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi.

He said "He just dropped out. In fact if you want India's help, you cannot behave like this. In my opinion, it is very childish."

Excerpts of the interview

"Internationally we are very well known. There is a new government in India. So we thought that people who are intellectually linked with BJP should come and clarify our new policy. Our new policy is that, unlike the previous Government, we will not give a to veto Tamil Nadu. We will take Tamil Nadu into account, but ultimately the deciding factor is national interest. Today national interest requires us to support Sri Lanka.

Asian Tribune(AT): What do you think about the Indian fishermen problem?

Dr. Subramaniam Swami: Well it is a micro problem. People in the past who were financed by the LTTE were looking for issues in relevance and the competition between Karunanidhi and Jeyalalitha who says that she can say it with more extreme language. The real reason is that the Indian side has exhausted all the fish, so they are forced to come to Sri Lankan waters. The fishermen in Sri Lanka especially in the North are objecting to them entering Sri Lankan waters. We think that both countries should do something to change the situation so that the Indian waters can also have good fish and sea food.

Q: About Katchativu?

A: Katchativu was given to Sri Lanka by virtue of a treaty and that treaty has the acceptance of the then ruling DMK and so now it can't be reopened. There is no violation of the treaty by Sri Lanka and it should remain a part of Sri Lanka.

Q: The former Manmohan Singh government was to a great extent, aggressive towards Sri Lanka. Due to that Sri Lanka has to an extent tilted towards China. What is your observation?

A: I don't think so. Today or even in Manmohan Singh's time, they (Sri Lanka) would ask India and when it comes to anything to do with China, first they ask India whether they will do it for them and only when India says 'no', they would turn to China. China has obliged. But we can work with China as far as Sri Lanka is concerned.

The newspapers may blow it up out of proportion. But we are far more concerned by terrorists' influence that is spread by ISI Pakistan and the use of Tamil speaking Muslims.

Q: About the Tamil issue: how are you looking at the Sri Lankan problem, mainly the Tamil problem?

A: Sri Lanka and the Tamils have to find a solution within the framework of the sovereignty of Sri Lanka and we (India) have an agreement, the 13th Amendment and most of the 13th Amendment has already been implemented by Sri Lanka.

Some issues are left and there is good reason at least why one of the issues is still pending, that is police powers.

Even in India, in some states, chief ministers do not have police powers, such as Delhi, because we can't duplicate. In my opinion there is a special reason here as well.

Honestly, we are concerned in terms of Sri Lanka and Tamils - privately I say resolve this problem so that no more demands will be made. The Parliamentary Select Committee and goes around making anti-government statements and finding fault with everything the Government says or does.

When the Sri Lankan President invited the Chief Minister of the Northern Province to join him to be a part of the delegation to the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi, he just dropped out. If you want India's help, then you cannot behave like this. In my opinion, it was very childish of him to stay away.

- Asian Tribune