SL must switch to Federal polity if India is to help

Chennai, Aug 30: Janata Party President and former Union minister Subramanian Swamy today said India should intervene and help bring about a solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka only if its government adopts a federal Constitution in place of the present Unitary one.

India should demand that the Sri Lankan parliament pass a resolution to this effect, he said addressing a press conference here.

He said India should help Sri Lanka to either contain the LTTE or wipe it out completely.

Dr Swamy, who charged the UPA government at the Centre with failing to deal with rising terrorist acts in the country with an iron hand, said instead of blaming the erstwhile BJP led NDA government for everything, the Manmohan Singh government must evolve a ''counter terrorism strategy''.

He claimed that a legislation on the lines of POTA was also necessary to deal with terrorism, if not revival of POTA itself.

''The UPA government has only been seeking to score points against the erstwhile NDA government instead of flushing out terrorists from the country'', he alleged.

Referring to the Kandahar hijack of an Indian Airlines flight, in which the NDA government has been criticised for alleged weak-kneed approach, Dr Swamy wondered why Ms Sonia Gandhi, who was the leader of opposition at that time, did not raise it then.

He also alleged that the Congress was ''hand in glove'' with the BJP when the NDA was in power.

UNI

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