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SL experienced linguistic struggle not ethnic: Swamy

20 Aug 2014 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Chairman of the BJP Committee on Strategic Action and BJP's National Executive Committee Member Subramanium Swamy said today that what took place in Sri Lanka was not an ethnic struggle but a linguistic struggle.

Speaking on the final day of the fourth Defence Seminar organised by the Sri Lanka Army, Dr. Swamy also said his Government has made it clear that it was committed to improve ties between the two neighbours -- India and Sri Lanka.

“We in India are not going to maintain this policy of ‘continuity’ with our neighbours and the recent example is that with Pakistan,” Dr. Swamy said .

He is widely regarded as an advocate for close ties with the Sri Lankan Government and has been a frequent visitor to the island.

“Sadly because the Tamil Nadu political parties were in the coalition led by the Congress, the support that India could have extended to Sri Lanka was lost. The Sri Lankan Government had to go for peace talks because of international pressure,” Dr. Swamy said.

“As a constituent of the BJP we have given several proposals on our foreign policy to the Indian Government, the first is that our foreign policy should be based on national interests and not on narrow local interests, a relationship that is best served with all our neighbours,” he said.

Dr. Swamy said the second proposal was that while India respected the UN Charter, the investigation on war crimes against Sri Lanka was unbalanced and intrusive and this was not acceptable to India.

Speaking about anti-Sri Lankan politicians in India, he said those who proposed strict action against Sri Lanka have been eliminated at the Indian elections.

Dr. Swamy said the entire shrimp and fish harvest in the Southern Indian waters has been exploited by the Indian fishermen therefore the owners of the fishing boats who are either politicians or businessmen encourage the Indians to go into the Lankan waters and exploit the rich harvest, especially of shrimp.

He said the new Indian government wants to work closely with its SAARC neighbours and its partners in South East Asia and with China too.(Supun Dias)