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Disconnect over Sri Lankan airmen;
Jayalaithaa demands they be sent home
Friday July 06, 2012 11:38:37 PM,
IANS
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Chennai/New
Delhi: In a clear instance of disconnect, the Press
Information Bureau's Chennai wing said Friday that all the Sri
Lankan airmen being trained near Chennai were being sent back.
The external affairs and defence
ministries in New Delhi denied any such action - but not
officially.
Late Friday, Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister J. Jayalalitha demanded they be sent home immediately,
and not elsewhere in India.
"All Sri Lankan trainees are being sent off today (Friday) from
this (Tambaram air force) station as per instruction of Ministry
of Defence," said a one-line statement issued by the Press
Information Bureau's Chennai wing around 2 p.m.
This was construed as the central government bowing to the
political pressure exerted by Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK and
opposition DMK against the training being provided to the Sri
Lankan airmen.
But in the evening, the ministries of external affairs and defence
in New Delhi stated that no action had been initiated against the
trainees, adding that they would not precipitate a diplomatic row
by sending the airmen back.
For good measure, the Indian Air Force (IAF) too pointed out that
training Sri Lankan airmen was nothing new and that three-to
six-month courses had previously been conducted at air bases in
Tamil Nadu.
An IAF officer also noted that the Sri Lankan trainees were only
being shifted to another air base in Bangalore - reportedly to
Yelahanka - for the next phase of training, after having completed
the Tambaram phase.
However, neither the two ministries nor the IAF were willing to
come on record to state their positions on the issue.
Jayalalithaa, in a statement, demanded the trainees be sent home
immediately and not to Yelakahka.
Reports of Sri Lankan air force personnel being trained at the
Tambaram air base on the outskirts of Chennai have raised the
hackles of all Dravidian political parties and their leaders in
Tamil Nadu.
These include Jayalalithaa, DMK chief M. Karunanidhi and MDMK
leader Vaiko.
The DMK is a partner in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
at the centre.
These leaders have demanded the immediate expulsion of Sri Lankan
Air Force personnel being trained in Tamil Nadu.
Jayalalithaa had said this training was being given at a time when
the Tamil Nadu assembly passed a resolution that India and other
countries should impose economic sanctions against Sri Lanka for
committing war crimes.
"When the international community is raising its voice that India
should urge Sri Lanka to accord equal rights to Tamils, the news
of Sri Lanka Air Force personnel (coming) for nine months training
at the Tambaram air force station (near here) is like piercing
(our) heart with a spear," she had said.
She said the training and that too in Tamil Nadu "is not only
inappropriate but also anti-Tamil".
Former chief minister Karunanidhi also condemned the training and
demanded the trainees be sent back.
Tamil parties have accused the Sri Lankan military of committing
atrocities on Tamil civilians during the final stages of the war
against the separatist Tamil Tigers that ended in May 2009.
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