India had lost its clout in Sri Lanka: Yashwant Sinha
NEW DELHI: The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday reacted differently to the Sri Lankan government’s rejection of a ceasefire with the LTTE.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said India had received “concrete assurances” from Sri Lanka on the “safety, security and rehabilitation” of the civilian non-combatant Tamil population directly affected by the fighting in the North and Northeast of the island nation. At the same time, there could be “no question” of interference in the affairs of a sovereign country.
Mr. Singhvi emphasised that the tragedy and suffering of the civilian Tamils, “cruelly used as human shields by the LTTE,” can end only when the fight with the LTTE was taken to its “logical conclusion.”
“Withdraw envoy”
The BJP, on the other hand, demanded an “internationally supervised ceasefire” to enable the civilians to come out of the war zone. The former External Affairs Minister, Yashwant Sinha, lamented that the Indian government had “lost its clout” with Sri Lanka and if Colombo continued to ignore the demands made by New Delhi, “we should withdraw our High Commissioner to Colombo.” Mr. Singhvi made the Congress-United Progressive Alliance position clear: “The Congress-UPA has been most concerned and active in relation to the plight of the non-combatant civilian Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Foreign Minister, the Foreign Secretary and other high-ranking officials have made several visits to Colombo. We have received concrete assurances on issues related to the safety, security and rehabilitation of the non-combatant Tamils. But that is very different from a sovereign country like India interfering in the affairs of another sovereign country like Sri Lanka … How would India like another country to interfere on behalf of any group in this country demanding a separate homeland?”
Mr. Sinha had emphasised that India must try to get a ceasefire supervised by the international community.
