India should recognise LTTE's struggle for liberation: PMK

Vellore, Nov 16 (UNI) Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder leader S Ramadoss today said India should recognise the struggle being waged by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for liberation.

Talking to newspersons here, he said India, instead of branding the LTTE as a terrorist organisation, should recognise it as a militant movement, fighting for liberation.

Though India considered Lanka as a friendly country, the latter, after procuring arms from India's enemy countries like Pakistan and China is killing its own people, fighting for their rights.

As the Lankan government was killing its own people, in the guise of eliminating ''terrorists'', the Indian government should intervene and ensure ceasefire in the Island. If it could not directly intervene, India should at least take up the issue with the United Nations, he said.

More than two lakh Tamils have become refugees in their own land and another three lakh people were facing the danger of getting killed in the military offensive, he said.

Dr Ramadoss urged the DMK government to convene an all-party meeting again to discuss the Tamils issue in the wake of Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa rejecting the demand for ceasefire.

When asked about the alliance, he said as the elections to Lok Sabha would be held only after March, the party's general council would meet in February and announce its alliance strategy.

Dr Ramadoss, who addressed the farmers, demanded that the Tamil Nadu government come out with a separate budget for agriculture and address the problems faced by the farmers.

Stating that farming was no more lucurative, he said the government should come forward to announce a procurement price of Rs 2000 per tonne of sugarcane.

It was unfortunate that youth engaged in agriculture were deserting the villages, looking for jobs in urban areas, he added.

UNI XR/WS KVV SV RK1944