BJP may change stance on Tamil Eelam, hints Sinha

Senior BJP leader and former union minister Yashwant Sinha on Wednesday night warned Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksha that the latter’s policies of continued “oppression” against the Tamils there could open the floodgates to Tamil Eelam.

“So far, the BJP’s position to resolve the much-prolonged Tamils ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka has been for a negotiated settlement within the territorial Integrity of Sri Lanka,” Sinha said, addressing a special meeting on the ‘Island-Tamils crisis’ in Chennai, organised by the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit.

But recent history has shown that the more the rulers of a country decide to suppress an already heavily discriminated section of its people, the more independent minded they become,” Sinha said, citing recent examples of separation of East Timor, and North and South Sudan becoming two countries among others. 

Stating that he was sending out a message to Rajapaksha from Chennai, Sinha stressed that rulers trying to suppress people’s movements does not work for all times. “If people rise there is no stopping,” Sinha said.