Training to Lankan forces concealed from TN: Jaya

The controversy over Sri Lankan Army officers being trained by the Indian military establishment has yet again surfaced in Tamil Nadu, with the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa strongly condemning two more defence personnel from that country undergoing training here since May.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday, the Tamil Nadu chief minister criticised the Centre’s “reprehensible attitude” on this issue, despite her earlier pleas to New Delhi that Sri Lankan officers should not be trained anywhere in India, ignoring Tamils’ sentiments.

Referring to two defence personnel from Sri Lanka, Major Dissanayaka Mohottalalage Vengra of the Sri Lankan Army and Captain Hewawasam Kandaudage of the Sri Lankan Navy, undergoing training at the Defence Services Staff College in Wellington in Tamil Nadu’s Nilgiris district from May 19 this year, Jayalalithaa said “this has been mischievously concealed from my government.”

The prime minister should hence instruct the Defence Ministry to “immediately halt the training” given to those two officers and send them back to Sri Lanka immediately,” Jayalalitha urged in her letter.

The DMK-Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO) global meet on protecting ‘Eelam Tamils Rights’ held in Chennai recently had also urged the Centre to stop any training given to Lankan defence personnel anywhere in the country.

Explaining the significance of the DMK-TESO resolutions, party chief M Karunanidhi had on Friday night disclosed at a rally on Chennai’s outskirts that the DMK’s treasurer, M K Stalin, accompanied by the party’s Parliamentary Party leader, T R Baalu, will travel to the United Nations in New York in the next 20-30 days to submit copies of the resolutions to the UN Authorities for further action on their resolutions to protect ‘Eelam Tamils’.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazagham has already given copies of the resolution to  Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi.