Zee Media Bureau/Ritesh K Srivastava
Chennai: BJP`s decision to invite Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa o attend Narendra Modi`s swearing-in ceremony on May 26 has triggered a row down south with reports on Thursday suggesting that Tamil Nadu J Jayalaithaa and MDMK leader Vaiko may skip the function.
Reports say that the presence of the Sri Lankan President during the ceremony would hurt the feelings of the Tamil people.
Similarly, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, who has raised the plight of Tamils living in Sri Lanka, is also reportedly upset with the BJP`s invite to the Sri Lankan president.
Talking to reporters yesterday, MDMK chief Vaiko claimed Congress was shown the door by the people of Tamil Nadu for allegedly helping Colombo in its pursuit against LTTE, "in which thousands of Tamil civilians were killed."
With "unexplainable grief" Vaiko had asked Modi and BJP national president Rajnath Singh not to allow Rajapaksa to attend the swearing-in ceremony which, he said, would hurt the Tamils the world over.
"In such a situation it has come as a major jolt that invitation has been reportedly sent to Rajapaksa," Vaiko said in a statement here.
Vaiko and many other Tamil political parties allege that civilian casualties of the Tamils peaked during the last leg of the war against LTTE with Rajapaksa at the helm of affairs.
The Centre`s reasoning that he was part of the SAARC nations` leaders who have been invited for the swearing-in was not acceptable and his participation in the ceremony would result in "grief and regret" for Tamil people, he added.
Vaiko recalled that Sri Lanka was not invited when BJP`s A B Vajpayee was sworn-in in 1998-99 and the subsequent ceremonies to mark assuming of offices by the UPA in 2004 and 2009, he said.
