The Ministry of External Affairs has written to Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, seeking time to discuss the issues facing fishermen from the State and Tamilians living abroad in countries like Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the U.S., so that the Ministry could help address them, Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan has said.
Speaking at a meet-and-greet event organised by the New India Forum, Mr. Muraleedharan said, “We have requested the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to decide a suitable, convenient date so that Ministers handling external affairs and State Ministers can come together and discuss the issues faced by Tamil Nadu fishermen and people in Malaysia, Sri Lanka, U.S. and other parts of the world.”
“We can come over to Chennai, discuss specific issues related to Tamil Nadu alone, and whatever the Government of India, through the External Affairs Ministry, has to do, we will definitely take steps to address those issues,” he said.
The Minister said the MEA had written to all Chief Ministers, asking them to hold a day-long discussion about the issues faced by Indians abroad.
Mr. Muraleedharan said after ending the special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370,the entire country is bounden by the Constitution.
The Minister slammed “some political leaders” who were running CBSE schools and teaching Hindi, but were still protesting against the language in Tamil Nadu.
Earlier in the day, he said, “For giving encouragement for the propogation of all the languages, we are not for imposing Hindi on anybody. We would like to see that everybody studies their mother tongue become well versed in the mother tongue.”
