India strongly objected to the alleged insulting remarks passed by the army chief official from Sri Lanka about the Tamil Nadu’s politicians. As per the foreign ministry in a statement, the high commissioner of India has taken up this issue with the defense secretary of Sri Lanka. The department also commented that the defense secretary has expressed regrets about the whole matter.
The Army chief of Lanka, General Sarath Fonseca, earlier stirred the hornet’s nest by explaining some of the politicians from Tamil Nadu such as Vaiko to be ‘jokers’. Also, in some interview, Fonseca commented that India will not be listening to all the demands that are being made by such politicians to hold a ceasefire between LTTE and army in the island country.
As per the statement issued by MEA, “Our high commissioner, Colombo, took up the matter strongly with the Sri Lankan defense secretary. The defense secretary of Sri Lanka promised to look into the matter and conveyed regrets should any such comment been made.” Fonseca had also gone to give the names of the politicians who were on LTTE payroll as per his claims. Soon after these remarks were made, the MDMK conducted disapprovals against the politicians of Sri Lanka.
Alok Prasad, the high commissioner of India, took all this issue to the defense secretary, Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Also, Fonseca had commented that the government of India will never sway Sri Lanka to refurbish the ceasefire with LTTE and will also not give an ear to the Tamil Nadu’s “political jokers” whose primary survival depends entirely on LTTE. Fonseca further added in the interview that if LTTE is all wiped out, the political jokers such as Vaiko, P Nedumaran and others who are sympathizing with LTTE will probably lose the income coming from LTTE.
