PM should not attend Commonwealth Summit: Tamil parties

The AIADMK and DMK Monday appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to attend the Commonwealth meet scheduled in Sri Lanka later this year, contending that doing so would be endorsing human rights violations by Colombo against the Tamils.

Raising the matter in Rajya Sabha, AIADMK leader V. Maitreyan said: "Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris is in India to invite prime minister for the Commonwealth Summit. Any high level delegation from India attending the summit in Sri Lanka, which the AIADMK considers an enemy country, will be endorsing the acts of human rights violation by that country."

He said his party chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha had written two letters to the prime minister appealing to him not to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), but no reply was given.

"People of Tamil Nadu are waiting with eagerness to see how the prime minister is going to respond. Whether he is going to side with Sri Lankan government?" he said.

DMK leader Kanimozhi associated with the issue and said her party has said several times that prime minister should not attend the meet.

"At least India should not attend the meeting," she said.