Manufacturing News

Chennai based The Hindu does it again

The Hindu article titled “LTTE has betrayed Sri Lankan Tamils: Swamy” [Online edition; 24 July 2001] turns out to be another fib in the ongoing saga of vilification of the LTTE by this newspaper.

The story claims that Dr. Subramanian Swamy, the Indian Janata Party president addressed a “meeting of Sri Lankan Tamils from the U.S. and Canada” consisting of “persons holding high positions in various professions” … “ convened to form a group that would struggle non-violently for the human rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils.”

The story added that Dr. Swamy, having attended this meeting, found that the “Tamil intellectuals felt betrayed by the violent methods of the LTTE, which had through a series of assassinations led to the decimation of Sri Lankan Tamil leadership's stature.”

The truth is no such meeting took place.

There were only two meetings of Sri Lankan Tamils in New York in the last few days. One was the bi-monthly committee meeting of the Ilankai Tamil Sangam, USA, and the other an informal gathering where a proposal for a Tamil Cultural Center in New York was discussed. Dr. Swamy attended the latter. Both meetings were held in private residences, attended by a handful of Sri Lankan Tamils.

In the one attended by Dr. Swamy there were no formal speeches or presentations on Sri Lanka. The host, contacted by the Sangam, said that it was an informal gathering of a few friends who happened to be in New York at the time. The only presentation, if one may call it that, was on the proposed multi-million dollar project to create a Tamil Cultural Center in New York.

Afterwards, Dr. Swamy, in private conversations with a few guests, answered questions about his views on Sri Lanka. There were no plans to “form a group that would struggle non-violently for human rights…” as claimed in the report.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/07/24/stories/0324000h.htm

LTTE has betrayed Sri Lankan Tamils: Swamy

WASHINGTON, JULY 23. India would never forgive the LTTE for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. ``For us, Rajiv's assassination is a challenge to our sovereignty,'' the Janata Party president, Dr. Subramanian Swamy, said in New York today. He was addressing a meeting of Sri Lankan Tamils from the U.S. and Canada.

The meeting was attended by persons holding high positions in various professions and had been convened to form a group that would struggle non-violently for the human rights of the Sri Lankan Tamils.

Dr. Swamy told PTI that the Sri Lankan President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga, was clueless on what to do. The solution was either Sri Lanka become a federal state instead of the present unitary state or an Indian-guaranteed Eelam be created. The former was better, but the present procrastination could not go on because the LTTE was destroying the Tamil younger generation or brutalising it. The Sinhala community should make up its mind soon.

The gathering, Dr. Swamy said, revealed that Tamil intellectuals felt betrayed by the violent methods of the LTTE, which had through a series of assassinations led to the decimation of Sri Lankan Tamil leadership's stature. The get- together was to explore if a peaceful non-violent movement could be launched from abroad.