{"id":39521,"date":"2015-03-14T01:09:35","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T05:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=39521"},"modified":"2015-03-14T01:09:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T05:09:35","slug":"indian-pm-modi-tells-tna-to-speak-with-one-voice-and-asks-sri-lankan-tamils-to-be-patient-with-the-new-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=39521","title":{"rendered":"Indian PM Modi Tells TNA to Speak with One Voice and asks Sri Lankan Tamils to be Patient with the new Govt"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamils to be patient with the new government in Colombo, The Hindu learns from sources.<\/p>\n

He met senior leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) \u2014 the main party representing the island\u2019s northern Tamils \u2014 in Colombo on Friday.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the \u201cbeginning of change\u201d in the country following the victory of President Maithripala Sirisena in the January elections, Mr. Modi reportedly said the TNA should \u201chelp that change take place,\u201d and not derail the process.<\/p>\n

Mr. Modi urged the TNA to ensure that the party spoke in one voice, asking its \u201cthink tank\u201d to come up with a different strategy to engage with the newly-formed government, TNA sources said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Hindu, TNA spokesperson Suresh Premachandran said: \u201cWe brought up the issue of private land in Army control and the release of political prisoners. Mr. Modi told us that he had raised the issues with President Sirisena, and that he had assured to do the needful.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\u201cExcellent speech\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Commenting on the Indian Prime Minister\u2019s speech in Parliament earlier on Friday, TNA parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran said Mr. Modi made a an \u201cexcellent speech\u201d with a strong case for greater devolution in a manner that was not \u201coverbearing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am firm believer in cooperative federalism,\u201d Mr. Modi said in his address.<\/p>\n

Mr. Modi\u2019s meeting with the TNA delegation \u2014 the second since their last meeting in August 2014 in New Delhi \u2014 was held on the eve of the PM\u2019s visit to the island\u2019s Tamil-majority Northern Province.<\/p>\n

Jaffna visit<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Modi, on Saturday, will become the first Indian Prime Minister and the third Indian leader to visit Jaffna, after Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.<\/p>\n

Gandhi — who was in Sri Lanka in 1927 to raise funds for India\u2019s poor \u2014 arrived in Jaffna on November 26, according to Sri Lankan historian Santasilan Kadirgamar\u2019s book on the \u2018The Jaffna Youth Congress\u2019. He was greeted by a huge crowd at the Jaffna station, whose restoration was recently completed after it was destroyed during the war. Gandhi had taken the train from Colombo and returned to India by sea from Talaimannar \u2013 an option the two governments are considering reviving. Nehru was in Jaffna in 1931 along with Indira Gandhi \u2014 a teenager then \u2014 and was received by the Jaffna Youth Congress.<\/p>\n

‘India Corner’<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Saturday, after offering prayers at the ancient city of Anuradhapura in the North Central Province Mr. Modi will go to Talaimannar \u2014 the closest point to India \u2014 to flag off the last leg of railway services in the Northern Province, restored by IRCON.<\/p>\n

He will then proceed to Jaffna, to inaugurate an \u2018India Corner\u2019 in the Jaffna Public library, and lay the foundation stone for the Jaffna Cultural Centre being built with Indian assistance. The \u2018India Corner\u2019 seeks to be a space where material on India and the links between the two countries will be archived and preserved, sources said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Modi will also meet beneficiaries of the Indian housing scheme \u2014 India is funding a project to build 50,000 homes for families displaced by the war \u2014 in Ilavalai, about 15 km from Jaffna town. <\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamils to be patient with the new government in Colombo, The Hindu learns from sources. He met senior leaders of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) \u2014 the main party representing the island\u2019s northern Tamils \u2014 in Colombo on Friday. Pointing to the \u201cbeginning of …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Indian PM Modi Tells TNA to Speak with One Voice and asks Sri Lankan Tamils to be Patient with the new Govt’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39522,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39521\/revisions\/39522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}