MK goes on fast; PM gives assurance on Lankan issue

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning spoke to DMK chief M Karunanidhi who went on an indefinite fast demanding immediate truce in Sri Lanka. Singh assured the Tamil Nadu chief minister that India would do its best to bring peace in the island nation.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighting with Lankan military in northeast Sri Lanka on Sunday evening declared a ceasefire citing an “unprecedented humanitarian crisis”. The Lankan authority, however, rejected it by terming it a mere “joke”.

The rebels, then again, put their present stand as a response to the calls made by the UN, EU, the governments of India and others to come to halt to fighting and let civilians come out from the conflict zone safely.

With Sri Lanka's latest stand reiterating ‘no truce’ and insisting the rebels must surrender, the politics in India is now at a new level. No political parties of Tamil Nadu state want to take any chance by hurting the common sentiments of Tamils in an election season.

Accusing the Sri Lanka’s government for killing innocent Tamils Karunanidhi said: "Let me be one of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's victims" and added, “I have decided to offer my life to the increasing numbers of lives lost due to the Sinhalese regime’s continuing cruel acts against the Tamil ethnic minority in the war in Sri Lanka,”

The 84-year-old DMK patriarch who is now recovering from a back surgery had not even taken his daily medicines and according to some, it was a complete surprise for his own party members when on Monday morning Karunanidhi suddenly declared to go for a fast till death.

He started his protest at the memorial of party founder C.N. Annadurai at Chennai’s Marina Beach. This will no doubt put more and more pressure on the UPA government at Centre to put more pressure on Sri Lanka to agree on a ceasefire.

Last week, India had sent a special emissary comprising National Security Adviser M.K Narayanan and Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Sri Lanka who voiced India’s strong concern for the thousands of displaced civilians and Tamils still caught in the 5 sq km long area.

According to the United Nations (UN), some 50,000 civilians remained trapped though the army puts the number at 15,000. Aid workers have been barred from the area since the fighting escalated last year. International aid workers are not allowed to enter that area. LTTE has said that the government is deliberately blocking food which has been denied by the Sri Lankan authority.

Meanwhile, Karunanidhi during his fast has urged the Government of India to break all diplomatic relation with Sri Lanka if the Rajapaksa government refused to halt the war in Lanka immediately.