Devolve powers to Tamil areas in Sri Lanka: Swamy

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday said Sri Lanka should take steps to devolve powers in the Constitution to Tamils in the island country to enable them to pursue their economic and cultural aspirations.

Describing the "defeat and decimation" of the LTTE by Sri Lankan army as a "cause for rejoicing by democratic patriotic people of India", Swamy alleged in a statement here that the "Tamil Tigers were imparting training to the banned ULFA and naxalites in India".

"We are pleased that President (Mahinda) Rajapaksa has accepted to address the root causes, namely, the lack of adequate human and political rights of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, he said.

The President therefore must take steps to devolve powers in the Constitution to Tamils in North and Eastern parts of that country to enable the residents to pursue their local economic and cultural aspirations," Mr. Swamy added.

In his address to the Sri Lankan Parliament on Tuesday, a day after reports of death of LTTE Chief V Prabhakaran, Rajapaksa had announced that "equal rights for all is my goal" and a solution to the Tamils issue would be found, "but not under international pressure".

The Hindu News Update Service

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