The issue of Sri Lankan Tamils figured in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday again with members cutting across party line expressing concern over the plight of ethnic Tamils, forcing the government to assure the House that it would come out with an "appropriate response" to the matter.
The government assurance came after a number of MPs demanded an all-party meeting on the issue. "I will convey the feeling of the House to the PM and government will respond appropriately on the issue," minister of state in PMO Prithviraj Chavan told the House.
Raising the issue, BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said that reports emanating from Sri Lanka "are horrible, and there seems to be nothing less than a genocide" taking place there.
Naidu said that the international community has not done much and the PM should call an all-party meeting to discuss the issue at length.
V Maitreyan of AIADMK, D Raja of CPI, Brinda Karat of CPM along with other Left MPs also joined the chorus demanding an all-party meeting, terming it the government’s "moral responsibility" to look into the interests of ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka.
"The dimension of this human tragedy on Tamil women and children is something which requires special attention and redressal," Karat said.
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