Naam Tamilar Katchi chief coordinator Seeman on Monday disapproved of State BJP president K. Annamalai’s recent assertion that the situation of Tamils in Sri Lanka would have been different had Narendra Modi been the Prime Minister of India during 2007-08. Mr. Annamalai made the statement at the Mullivaikal Massacre memorial meeting organised in Chennai last Saturday.
Mr. Seeman told journalists that Mr. Modi had not said anything in support of the ethnic Tamils and against the civil war in Sri Lanka when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.
“Mr. Annamalai says if he had the chance to turn back time, he would have made Mr. Modi the Prime Minister and prevented the war in Sri Lanka. If I had such a boon, I would have prevented him from becoming the Chief Minister of Gujarat and saved thousands of Muslims. Did Mr. Modi raise his voice in support of the ethnic Tamils? If he had done that, we can understand that he would have prevented it if he had been the Prime Minister,” Mr. Seeman said.
He questioned the BJP over why Hindus of Sri Lanka are not provided with Indian citizenship similar to Hindu refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh. “When Tamils died, why are they not seen as Hindus? When places of worship of Tamils were destroyed, why didn’t BJP see that as an affront to Hindus,” he asked.
