Chennai, Nov.4 (ANI): Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja on Monday asserted that the Central government cannot ignore the unanimous resolution passed by the Tamil Nadu state assembly demanding India to boycott Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled to be held in Colombo later this month.
He also asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to spell out the position of the Government on this issue.
"The Tamil Nadu state assembly has passed a unanimous resolution that neither the Prime Minister nor any representative should participate in CHOGM. It means India should not participate in Commonwealth Summit in Sri Lanka.
"Prime Minister has to spell out the position of the Government. The Central Government cannot ignore this unanimous resolution. If that is the sense of the Tamil Nadu assembly, Prime Minister will have to respect that," he added.
He further said that if Manmohan Singh does not respect this resolution and plans to go ahead or depute someone to attend the Commonwealth summit, it would mean that the Government still continues to side with Rajapaksha government and legitimizes what his government did for tamil people in Sri Lanka.
Earlier on November 2, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would decide as to whether he would participate in CHOGM or not.
"There is no update. The Prime Minister will take a call. We don't have anything yet. Everyone has given their inputs and the PM will decide," he said.
There has been stiff opposition from the political outfits in Tamil Nadu, including DMK and the AIADMK, over the Prime Minister's visit to Sri Lanka.
The Tamil Nadu assembly unanimously adopted a resolution last month that said India must boycott the session to register its protest against the Sri Lankan government's failure to investigate and punish those who allegedly persecuted the island's ethnic Tamils in the final phase of the civil war that ended in 2009 when the military feared the rebel Tamil Tigers.
The DMK supremo M. Karunanidhi has also warned that if the Prime Minister travels to Sri Lanka, 'his party will have to face the consequences'. (ANI)
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