DMK demands India not participate in CHOGM

DMK today demanded that India not participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meet (CHOGM) in Colombo in November this year and warned of protests and hoisting of black flags state-wide if its demand was not acceded by the Centre.
"If the request is ignored by the Centre, black flags will be hoisted atop homes and commercial establishments, besides staging rail roko, to express the feelings of Tamils and condemning India's participation in the summit," DMK President M Karunanidhi said in a statement here.
He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should clearly convey to Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister G L Peiris during his scheduled visit tomorrow that India would not participate in the meet.

"The Centre should not neglect the requests of Tamils in this regard and openly communicate to the Minister that India will not participate in the meet," he said.
He noted that all political parties in Tamil Nadu have been urging the Centre not to participate in the meet.
On the frequent attacks on Indian fishermen allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy, he observed that though the Centre had repeatedly been writing to the island nation on the issue and also held talks with its Ambassador, "it seems the Sri Lankan Government is not even listening to it".

Stating that only eight of the 49 Tamil fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy have so far been released,he noted that the remand of the others has been extended by courts there.

He alleged that the Rajapakse government has been continuously working on diluting the Rajiv Gandhi-Jayawardene Accord.
The DMK, which walked out of the UPA coalition over the Lankan Tamils issue in March this year, had adopted a resolution in the Executive that month, stating that India should boycott the meeting in case it was held in the island republic.