The visiting delegation of Indian parliamentarians representing both Lok Shaba and Rajya Sabha had an interactive session with a Sri Lankan parliamentary delegation led by Leader of the House Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva in the parliamentary complex.
During the meeting, Minister de Silva said that the government consists of a few parties with different political ideologies, and therefore, it is difficult to take unilateral decisions with regard to the national question. As a result, he said that the government had proposed to appoint a parliamentary select committee to evolve a political solution in consultation with all the parties concerned. He criticized the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) for not nominating its members to this committee.
TNA leader R. Sampanthan joined the discussion saying that the successive governments had neglected their responsibility in delivering a reasonable political solution to Tamil people. In a hard hitting speech, he viewed that his party started a dialogue with the present government in January, last year, but no progress had been made for the fulfillment of political aspirations of Tamil people. He analyzed how democratic struggles by Tamil parties were suppressed in the past, and the situation eventually led to the advent of Tamil militancy. (Kelum Bandara )
DM