Sri Lankan Govt should adopt Indian model constitution:TULF leader

Chennai, July 3 (UNI) Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) president V Anandasangaree today suggested that the Sri Lankan government should adopt the Indian model Constitution as a permanent solution to the vexed ethnic crisis.

Talking to newspersons here, Mr Anandasangaree, who was opposed to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said the island government, should take advantage of European Union's ban on the LTTE and forge ahead with the adoption of Indian constitutional model.

''The EU ban is a signal to the government that it should do what it can on its own to find a solution. It should not wait endlessly for the LTTE to come to the negotiating table, as the Tigers are never going to accept any solution,'' he said.

When asked whether he was advocating that the LTTE be isolated, Mr Anandasangaree said if Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse proposed a solution, the LTTE would come under great international pressure to accept it.

''I don't think it will be unrealistic for the Tamils and Sinhalese to accept the Indian model,'' he said adding that he considered the Indian constitutional structure a viable midpoint between a unitary State and a federal State.

Mr Anandasangaree said Tamil Nadu politicians, who were supporting the LTTE, could not ask for anything more than the Indian model for Sri Lanka's Tamils, as they themselves were happy with the extent of devolution of power to the States in India.

The TULF leader, who leads only a truncated section of the party, after the other leaders have thrown their lot with the LTTE, was not specific when asked what sort of role, he wanted India or Tamil Nadu to play.

UNI WS ROY PR RN2144