Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led UPA government came under sharp attack from Jayalalithaa during her Lok Sabha election campaign on Monday and Tuesday. The AIADMK leader listed out nine areas where the Congress had betrayed Tamil Nadu's interests, including frequent arrests fishermen by the Sri Lankan navy, retrieval of Katchatheevu island and defence training to Sri Lankan Army.
The Congress leader said neither the Congress nor the UPA regime betrayed Tamils and the rest of the country. "Betrayal is not in our dictionary," he said, listing out the initiatives taken by the Centre over the last ten for the welfare of Tamils.
While the chief ministers of opposition-ruled states like Bihar, Gujarat, West Bengal, Odisha had got along with the Centre for welfare projects of their states, Tamil Nadu chief minister had been confronting the Centre from the day of her assuming office, he said.
Gnanadesikan recalled India's stand against Sri Lanka in the US-sponsored resolution at UNHRC, even as several countries opposed it.
Tamil Nadu parties went gaga over the British Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to the Tamil-dominated northeast province of Sri Lanka on the sidelines of CHOGM in Colombo last year. "Why not Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh does a similar gesture? By passing a resolution in the state assembly against the PM's visit to Lanka, Jayalalithaa betrayed the Sri Lankan Tamils," he charged.
The TNCC chief also found fault with the Tamil Nadu government for putting off bilateral talks between fishermen of India and Sri Lanka, despite Union government sending repeated correspondences for the same. Retrieval of Katchatheevu islet ceded to Sri Lanka could be resolved only through bilateral talks between governments concerned and not through legal means, he said, in an apparent reference to Tamil Nadu government's petition in the Supreme Court.
In the power front, Gnanadesikan cited the integration of southern power transmission grid with national grid in January as promised by the Centre. The state also could have easily realized more than 600MW of power had the state police taken action against protesters in Kudankulam.
He reminded the Prime minister's intervention in releasing 9tmcft from Karnataka reservoirs, despite knowing the impending assembly elections and notifying the final award of the Cauvery water disputes tribunal.
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