India not for LTTE dictatorship in Lanka's north: PC

CHENNAI: Categorically stating that handing over power to LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was not a solution the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis,  Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Sunday said India’s efforts would never end up creating a dictator' in the island's north-east.

At a public meeting organised by his son Karti Chidambaram to explain the Congress party's stand on the sensitive issue, Chidambaram said the LTTE had never been the sole representatives of 40 lakh Sri Lankan Tamils.

"India has no moral responsibility to pressure the Sri Lankan government to hold talks with armed militants,'' he said. India's stand was clear. Just like the Centre was not in a position to negotiate with armed groups operating in Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir, Sri Lanka too would not initiate a dialogue with armed militants.

Quoting President Pratiba Patil's speech, the home minister said the Centre would definitely arrange for a ceasefire if the LTTE declared its willingness to lay down arms simultaneously with Colombo suspending military operations. Asking what was wrong with India's policy, he appealed to the LTTE to lay down arms as no state, president or prime minister would negotiate with armed groups.

Chidambaram clearly hinted that post-war negotiations would involve not just the LTTE but leaders of the East and Central provinces as well. The 13 lakh plantation Tamils of Indian origin have their own leaders, the 13 lakh Tamils in the East did accept the LTTE's leadership once but, frustrated by the outfit's violent attitude, the Eastern province now had its own democratically elected chief minister. The LTTE as a movement existed only for the northern Tamils now.

"Talks will be on the basis of the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord and it will be aimed at solution for all communities, and not for creating a dictatorship," he said.

The LTTE's biggest mistake was in clinically eliminating many Sri Lankan Tamil leaders. And then, it committed the blunder of assassinating Rajiv Gandhi, he said and noted that there were many Tamil leaders still left to pursue the path of democracy in Sri Lanka.

Reminding the people that the Tamil language was the binding and uniting force of Tamils living across the world, Chidambaram said some political parties championing the cause of Sri Lankan Tamils in the state did not even exist in the mid-1980s when he was handpicked by late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to hold talks with armed Sri Lankan Tamil groups, including the Tigers.