No-trust motion against govt is not the issue, says DMK

Raising its pitch on the Lankan Tamils issue, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Tuesday alleged that the United States-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Commission was diluted on the basis of India's 'wholehearted acceptance and appreciation' of a report tabled by Colombo at the United Nations body.

DMK president M Karunanidhi said Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and reports in a section of media had implied he had confined his demand to just passing a resolution in Parliament, incorporating amendments suggested to the US-backed resolution.

He claimed that his party had demanded that an amendment be made to declare that genocide and war crimes had been committed and inflicted on Eelam Tamils by the Sri Lankan Army and administrators and an independent international commission of investigation be established in a time bound manner, which should be adopted as a resolution in Parliament.

"Our request and desire is that this should also be moved in the UNHRC as part of the US resolution. But the demand for international investigation into war crimes is not mentioned in the resolution and instead it has been said that the Sri Lankan government should lead a probe....

"In this way, the US resolution has been diluted to a large extent. The watering down has been done on the basis of India whole-heartedly accepting and appreciating a report tabled by the Lankan government at UNHRC," he said, adding rights body Amnesty International had also accused India of diluting the resolution.

Further, DMK's suggested amendments were not considered fully and therefore at this juncture, the party had announced its decision to pull out of the UPA, he said.

Asked why the DMK is shying away from brining no-confidence motion, Shiva said, "We are not shying away, but the issue which is at forefront must be addressed first. It is not about the government. We are not doing politics, we are trying to save our people".

Both houses of Parliament were repeatedly disrupted over the issue of Lankan Tamils.

Making his party stand clear, the DMK MP said, "On Tuesday, we got the draft resolution which was totally different from the earlier resolution. There were many deviations and changes which made the resolution diluted. When we expect the Indian government to make the resolution stronger, it has been diluted and the government is silent on Geneva conference".

When asked that many parties, including principal opposition party, feel that DMK's demand for stronger resolution cannot be accepted and the foreign policy cannot be dictated, the DMK leader said "the foreign policy cannot make the country a silent spectator to the butchering of lakhs of people, genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

"The foreign policy must be devised for the welfare of the people and the interest of the people. Anyone can say anything but our policy will remain the same," he said.

When it was pointed out that Sri Lanka is a sovereign country, he said, "Just because it is a sovereign country, we are requesting for building international pressure.

"The Vienna Convention says there is a word 'genocide'. So we are not coining a new phrase which is impractical. What is going on in Sri Lanka is genocide and we want that to be incorporated in the resolution," he said.