By Sam Rajappa – TNS
DELHI – Tens of Thousands of students, coming from all the large states of India marched to the Indian parliament on Friday in New Delhi, raise the Eelam Tamil Issues at the Indian Capital.
This is the first time that The Eelam Tamil Issue was raised by students outside of Tamil Nadu. It’s a significant move says a political analyst in Delhi.
Pressing their educational demands including a 10 percent allotment of state expenditure on education, the student raise the Eelam Tamil issue as the only issue outside their educational issues as a priority. Political observers find great significance in the highlight of Eezham Tamil issue as a demand in this all India student rally.
End the attacks on Eezham Tamils, Stop the military aid to Sri Lanka and initiate a peaceful political solution to the crisis, were the demands included in the students’ agitation organized by the All India Students Federation (AISF).
Earlier a special train, carrying over 2000 students from Tamil Nadu, which left Chennai on Wednesday arrived Delhi. They joined the thousands of students arrived from all over India and camped at the Ramlila grounds in New Delhi in the cold of the winter and marched to the Indian Parliament for a distance of five km., on Friday afternoon.
Highlighting their feelings and their demand to end the sufferings of Eezham Tamils they have named their special train as ‘Messenger of Tears’.
Earlier the Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa rejected the call of immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa is in Delhi for the past two days to attend the BIMSTEC summit and met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday.
“Coming from a Buddhist country Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa has only shown his arrogance in the land of Buddha by his belligerent talk of continuing war”, said C. Mahendran, a senior leader of the Communist Party of India at the Delhi rally.
Commenting on Rajapaksa’s remarks Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi accused Rajapaksa of seeking time to eliminate Tamil race in the island republic and said that the Centre should not get ‘deceived and carried away by his words’. "There should not be a single bomb dropped on Tamils or their settlements under the pretext of eliminating the LTTE. But there is no word of guarantee from Rajapakse in this regard. The Army makes no distinction between Tamils and LTTE and attacks places of worship and settlements," he charged.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who have assumed the role of guiding this country, should prevail upon Sri Lanka and ask it not to drop bombs on civilians, as no country battling terrorism drops bombs on its own people," he further said.
