The Tamil National alliance (TNA) has sought an early appointment with India’s Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi, to explain to him in person, the issues confronting the Tamils of Sri Lanka, and to seek New Delhi’s help to secure a just political solution to the ethnic question.

In a letter congratulating Modi on his electoral triumph, TNA’s leader R Sampanthan on Saturday delineated the issues facing the Tamils and said: “We consider it our duty to bring these matters to your notice at the earliest possible opportunity. We do so in the belief that an honorable peace based upon justice and equality must prevail and India’s role must ensure that.”

The actions of the Lankan government are clearly indicative of a lack of a genuine commitment to evolve an acceptable political solution, he charged.

“The actions of the government undermine all efforts towards reconciliation, permanent peace and harmony, and create an environment that could promote hostility, which the Tamil people certainly do not desire,” Sampanthan said.

Being wedded to peace, the TNA would like to ensure that violence does not occur in Lanka, he added.

Sampanthan’s letter came a day after the Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C V Wigneswaran, refused to go to New Delhi to attend Modi’s  swearing in ceremony as part of the entourage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Wigneswaran, who belongs to the TNA, said that accompanying Rajapaksa will mean that he is endorsing the President’s “tokenism” towards the Tamils. (TNIE)