Centre should play its role to ensure rights of Tamils: AIPSO

A resolution adopted on the concluding day of its two-day meet expressed its solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamils and also urged the island government and the United Nations "to ensure security to Tamils and also a political solution which will enable the Tamils to have their due rights".

Briefing newsmen on the resolutions, National Secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI) D Raja, who was elected to the four-member presidium of AIPSO, said that in the last phase of war against LTTE in 2009 large number of Tamils were killed and thousands displaced.

Union Water Resources Minister P K Bansal, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechuri are the other members of the presidium.

He said the resolution also pointed out that the United Nations took note of the grave situation in Sri Lanka and urged for a probe into the alleged war crimes and "gross violation" of human rights there.

Raja said resolutions covering current political situation and events and also challenges faced by different countries including Syria were adopted at the conference whose theme was `better India better world`.

He said forces supporting peace and unity should mobilise people in India to ensure a world free from disease, poverty, starvation and hunger.

Nilothpal Basu, who was elected as one of the three General Secretaries of AIPSO, said it had been decided to reach out to sections of public opinion and those who might not be specifically aligned with political parties but have important role in emergence of public opinion.

"India should have an independent foreign policy. The world expects that India play a major and independent role. Indian people should also realise that they also have stake in global peace and make India contribute to it. Peace is everybody's business and peace movement should become effective," he said.

Pallav Sen Gupta and Yadav Reddy are the other two General Secretaries while Barun Mukherjee, MP, and K Lakshminarayanan MLA were elected Vice-Presidents.