TRICHY ; ” We have reached an agreement among ourselves to meet the Indian Foreign Secretary who is coming to Sri Lanka. Similarly, there is an intention to meet political leaders including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay. That too will happen soon,” said Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader and Member of Parliament Rauff Hakeem at the Trichy International Airport.
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader and Kandy District Member of Parliament Rauff Hakeem arrived at the Tiruchirappalli International Airport at 3 pm on Friday (31). He was received by the Indian Union Muslim League party.
Senior journalist Trichy M. K. Shakul Hameed welcomed the gathering on behalf of National President Professor K. M. Kader Mohideen.
Later, Rauff Hakeem gave an interview to the journalists present there. He said,
The Sri Lankan Tamil Speaking Parties’ Council
We have recently decided to act. Based on that, a discussion was held on Thursday night.
We have decided to meet together with the President of Sri Lanka, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, on Monday morning. We have decided to discuss with the President important issues affecting our communities and to make an effort to meet with the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament on the same day.
We have decided to hold joint meetings in this manner gradually. We have found a consensus among ourselves to meet the Indian Foreign Secretary, who is coming to Sri Lanka very soon in the next few days. There is also an intention to meet political leaders, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay. We hope that this will also be possible very soon.
The issue of sharing of river water between regions and states should be handled in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. When states act in this way, it creates problems for the states that are downstream in the distribution of those rivers.
We are concerned about the resurgence of such an issue between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. This needs to be resolved through dialogue. At the same time, there are many court decisions on this. Accordingly, our position is that we will carefully consider other political activities or political issues happening in another country and express our views on them. Therefore, we have not yet held discussions on it among ourselves.
Question: Sri Lankan fishermen came to Jaffna on Thursday and held a protest, waving black flags, as the Tamil Nadu fishermen’s issue remains unresolved.
Answer: This is a long-standing issue. I am often asked this question whenever I visit India. This is not just a diplomatic issue between the two countries, but a livelihood issue between the fishing communities of the two countries.
Therefore, we should approach this not only as a legal issue but also as a livelihood issue and approach it from a humanitarian perspective and find an amicable agreement between both sides. We reiterate that the Tamil Nadu State Government, with the help of the Central Government, should make efforts to that end by talking to the Minister of Fisheries of the Sri Lankan Government, and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs should also be involved in it, so that a permanent solution can be found soon.
As far as we are concerned, India is providing a lot of aid to Sri Lanka on the basis of being a friendly country. We would like to emphasize that just as much assistance is being provided to the Tamil-speaking people of Indian origin living in Sri Lanka, especially in matters such as housing schemes, the Indian government should also provide support to the Tamil-speaking people in other regions amidst the current economic crisis. At the same time, these governments are preventing the holding of elections to the Provincial Councils under the 13th Amendment made on the basis of the Indo-Sri Lanka Agreement. We have decided to discuss this with them in this regard as well.
There is a significant improvement in the economy. But unexpectedly, due to the war situation in the Middle East and the increase in the price of crude oil in the world market, similar issues have arisen in our country’s economy, while the increase in the price of export goods related to shipping, the increase in the price of import goods, etc. have adversely affected our export market and import market. This is at a time when we are recovering from our already existing economic crisis, such an unexpected problem has a huge impact on our economy.
Question: Sri Lankan Tamils are being held without charge in a special camp in Trichy. During their ongoing protest, they have been saying, “Send them to our country, Sri Lanka, finish our cases and send them to Sri Lanka.” How do you see this? Are you going to talk about that?
Answer: We have not discussed this seriously among ourselves yet. But if there is such a problem and if reports are sent to us about it, we can exert pressure locally. At the same time, since it is a legal issue with the Indian government, it would not be good for political parties of another country to interfere. However, we will try to do what we can in this regard by contacting our Ministry of Foreign Affairs diplomatically as much as possible.
Question: There has been a long-standing demand for the return of the confiscated lands of Tamils there. What is the status of that now?
Answer: We are going to raise this issue as a major issue in our meeting with the President next Monday. Governments have been saying that private lands acquired by the army and government forces during the war in all areas where Tamil-speaking people live will be released very soon. In this situation, we are going to talk about the pending issues related to this, said Rauff Hakeem MP.
