Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will take a right decision on participating in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions V. Narayanasamy said here on Tuesday.
Talking to journalists on the sidelines of a meeting organised by the Staff Selection Commission in Coimbatore, Mr. Narayanasamy said he was confident that the Prime Minister would not hurt the sentiments of Tamils.
Leaders of many political parties in the State had urged Mr. Singh not to attend the CHOGM. Union Minister for Shipping G.K. Vasan had recently called upon the Prime Minister to avoid participating in the meeting. Mr. Narayanasamy said he also shared their opinion.
ADVERTISEMENT
On fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry languishing in jails in Sri Lanka, Mr. Narayanasamy said the Central government had initiated efforts to get them released. It had intervened 20 times so far. Now it was engaged in securing the release of 59 fishermen from the Trincomalee prison.
Now that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had written to the Central government regarding organising a meeting between the fishermen of the two nations, the Centre would definitely arrange such a meeting in consultation with the Sri Lankan government.
The Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs had written twice in this regard to the Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu. The fishermen were also keen to have a meeting. In all probability, the meeting would take place sometime in November-December this year.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Minister welcomed the victory of Tamil National Alliance in the Northern Province in Sri Lanka. The TNA victory would help in the early resettlement of the Tamils.
In response to a question on the Congress’ or United Progressive Alliance’s Prime Ministerial candidate, he said the Congress would face the election in 2014 under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. And the party was sure of returning to power.
Those in the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, in particular, were day-dreaming that they would return to power.
In fact, Mr. Modi did not have the requisite qualification to be the candidate for the top post.