D. Raja against PM's Lanka visit, says 'Govt. should respect TN assembly's resolution'

Amid opposition from the various political outfits, including DMK's M. Karunanidhi, over Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's visit to Sri Lanka to participate in CHOGM later this month, CPI leader D. Raja today said the Centre should not undermine or ignore the unanimous resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly and should take decision accordingly.

Raja said the Prime Minister must spell out his position on this issue.

"Why the Prime Minister is not speaking on such an important issue?" he asked.

The CPI leader said the Congress-led UPA II Government stands completely confused and divided.

"I understand the government suffers from a sense of guilt. What happened in Sri Lanka was nothing, but genocide against Tamil people, horrendous war crimes, human rights violation took place in Sri Lanka," he added.

According to reports, senior UPA Ministers from Tamil Nadu want the Prime Minister to skip the Commonwealth summit in Colombo on November 15.

The Tamil Nadu assembly unanimously adopted a resolution last moth that said India must boycott the session to register its protest against the Sri Lankan government's failure to investigate and punish those who allegedly persecuted the island's ethnic Tamils in the final phase of the civil war that ended in 2009 when the military feared the rebel Tamil Tigers.

DMK supremo Karunanidhi has also warned that if the Prime Minister travels to Sri Lanka, 'his party will have to face the consequences'.