DMK pulls out of MPs delegation to Sri Lanka

Chennai, Apr 15: DMK President M Karunanidhi on Sunday ruled out his party’s presence in a Parliamentary delegation visiting Sri Lanka this week to assess the rehabilitation and political process, saying past experiences showed that there was no use of such visits.

“DMK never planned (to be part of the delegation). There are past experiences to show that there is no use of such visits. Therefore, nobody from DMK is undertaking the visit,” he told reporters here.

Lok Sabha MP T.K.S. Elangovan, was the DMK’s lone representative in the al-—party delegation to be led by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj.

Earlier, a delegation of DMK and Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu had visited Sri Lanka in 2010 and its members included Mr. Karunanidhi’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, T.R. Baalu (both from DMK) and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi founder Thol Thirumavalavan.

With the DMK ruling out its participation, the present delegation, which is visiting the neighbouring country from April 16-22, is now void of representation from the two big parties in the state as the ruling AIADMK has already pulled out its representative.

Expressing displeasure over the itinerary, AIADMK leader and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had announced pulling out her party’s lone representative A. William Rabi Bernard from the team.

Ms. Jayalalithaa had slammed the “ant-Tamil” approach of Sri Lanka as regards rehabilitation of internally displaced Tamils, Lankan navy’s “attacks” on fishermen, Colombo’s recent objection to KNPP project on radiation grounds.

The chief minister had also said that she did not want the visit to be a “mere eye-wash like the previous one” comprising MPs including Ms. Kanimozhi.

PTI