{"id":77378,"date":"2022-05-07T00:54:24","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T04:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=77378"},"modified":"2022-05-07T22:03:23","modified_gmt":"2022-05-08T02:03:23","slug":"i-wish-to-thank-you-and-the-tamil-nadu-government-on-behalf-of-the-people-of-sri-lanka-sri-lankan-prime-minister-mahinda-rajapaksa-sends-letter-thanking-tamil-nadu-chief-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=77378","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI wish to thank you and the Tamil Nadu government on behalf of the people of Sri Lanka,\u201d; Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa sends letter thanking Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin for his initiative to provide humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

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

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has thanked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin for his initiative to provide humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka, which is in the grip of a grave economic crisis.<\/p>\n

In a letter dated May 4, 2022 and addressed to Mr. Stalin, Mr. Rajapaksa said the passage of a resolution to send food, essential items and live-saving drugs was indicative of the Chief Minister\u2019s \u201cgood intentions\u201d. \u201cI wish to thank you and the Tamil Nadu government on behalf of the people of Sri Lanka, for viewing the country\u2019s crisis from a humanitarian standpoint, rather than as a problem concerning another country,\u201d Mr. Rajapaksa said.<\/p>\n

On April 29, the Tamil Nadu Assembly unanimously adopted a motion to send relief material worth \u20b9123 crore to the people of Sri Lanka. The support would entail 40,000 tonnes of rice, over 100 life-saving drugs and 500 tonnes of milk powder for children.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr. Stalin\u2019s gesture, and Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s response, come despite known hostilities between Tamil Nadu and the Rajapaksa administration, which has been accused of committing grave war crimes against the island nation\u2019s Tamils in the final stages of a civil war.<\/p>\n

Significantly, it was Sri Lanka\u2019s Tamil politicians who had requested Mr. Stalin to consider extending help to all Sri Lankans, and not just Tamils living in the north, east and the central hill country, as was earlier proposed by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.<\/p>\n

Taking their request on board, Mr. Stalin told the House recently: \u201cSri Lankan Tamil leaders and Tamil organisations made a request that we send support for all Sri Lankans, because people of all ethnicities are suffering in this crisis. When I heard that, I was moved. I could not control my emotions. This is the culture of Tamilians.\u201d Invoking celebrated poet Subramaniya Bharathiyar, he said, \u201c Pagaivanukku arulvai nannenje [Bless your enemy, oh kind heart].\u201d <\/p>\n

Sri Lanka is reeling from the impact of an acute economic downturn, resulting in severe shortages of food, medicines, cooking gas and fuel. Long and regular power cuts have disrupted normal life, while citizens struggle to afford essentials amid skyrocketing prices. The Government of India has extended support totalling $3 billion since January.<\/p>\n

While some other bilateral partners and international agencies, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, have promised support to Colombo, Tamil Nadu\u2019s assistance is the first instance of a State government taking the initiative to help the cash-strapped country. On March 31, Mr. Stalin met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and conveyed his intention to help Sri Lanka and sought the Centre\u2019s permission for the same.<\/p>\n

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

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

By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has thanked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin for his initiative to provide humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka, which is in the grip of a grave economic crisis. In a letter dated May 4, 2022 and addressed to Mr. Stalin, Mr. Rajapaksa said the passage of …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘\u201cI wish to thank you and the Tamil Nadu government on behalf of the people of Sri Lanka,\u201d; Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa sends letter thanking Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin for his initiative to provide humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka.’ »<\/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\/77378"}],"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=77378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77380,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77378\/revisions\/77380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}