Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Disanayaka assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his country's soil will not be used against India's interests, addressing concerns over China's growing influence in Colombo. The two leaders discussed a range of issues, including a defense cooperation agreement, energy ties, and debt restructuring. They also agreed to initiate a ferry service between Rameshwaram and Talaimannar, and to adopt a "humanitarian approach" to the fishermen issue.
Fourteen years after the Sri Lankan government announced his death, a veteran Tamil nationalist leader claimed in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, on Monday that Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka, is doing well and said a conducive atmosphere prevails for him to appear now.
In continuing instances of arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan Naval personnel, 11 fishermen fishing in the sea between Katchatheevu and Neduntheevu were arrested on Tuesday.
Faced with growing anti-Sri Lankan sentiments in Tamil Nadu, Colombo may shift its deputy high commission office out of Chennai, a media report said Sunday.
At least 63 LTTE militants and three security forces personnel were killed in raging ground battles since weekend while Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday shelled a main Sri Lankan military air base linking the country to the embattled north.
Rulers in New Delhi and their political aides in sensitive states like Tamil Nadu have to be doubly careful not to provoke a situation whose consequences may be much more than visible now to the naked eye, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Cho Ramaswamy talks about the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, the DMK walking out of the UPA and also his thoughts on the next Lok Sabha elections.
Taking exception to the continued arrests of Indian fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy, Tamil Nadu government has told the Centre that Colombo's "dubious actions" has resulted in the situation at sea remaining "precarious."
As India gear up for the T20 World Cup at home, the selectors have backed a squad built on impact, and versatility.
The 45-year-old former Delhi captain, who becomes the BCCI's 37th president, succeeds Roger Binny, who resigned last month after turning 70.
On the night of July 5, the Tigers launched their first kamikaze operation. Miller took the wheels of the explosive-packed truck, smiled at everyone as he turned the ignition key and drove it slowly towards the Sri Lankan military camp. A few moments later all of Jaffna heard a thunderous explosion that brought the complex crashing down in clouds of dust. Miller had given birth to a deadly tactic that Prabhakaran would employ time and again with devastating consequences to Sri Lanka -- and India. A fascinating excerpt from M R Narayan Swamy's must read new book, The Rout Of Prabhakaran.
An entire platoon of troops and two tanks of the Sri Lankan army were also missing.
Season 3 belongs to Jaideep Ahlawat who, despite the not so well-etched character, owns Rukma and gives the confrontation with Srikant Tiwari the missing edge of the earlier two seasons, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Seven Indian fishermen have been arrested by Sri Lankan navy for allegedly poaching in the country's waters in North Western province, media reported on Wednesday.
As Prabhakaran was leaving his house, Rajiv Gandhi called his son Rahul and asked him to fetch his (Gandhi's) bulletproof jacket. He put the jacket on Prabhakaran's back and remarked with his usual charming smile: "Take care of yourself."
The minister further said the Sri Lankan government is holding continuous interactions with the Tamil diaspora and people and leaders living in different parts of the world.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday warned Sri Lanka that "true reconciliation" with Tamils will take time, even as he praised the "openness" of the new government in efforts to boost democracy, human rights and reaching out to the minority community.
Heavy gun battles on Wednesday left at least 17 Tamil Tigers dead, while rebels claimed they killed over two dozen soldiers in Sri Lanka's embattled north.
"It is high time India traded dynasty for meritocracy. This would require fundamental reforms, from imposing legally mandated term limits to requiring meaningful internal party elections, together with a concerted effort to educate and empower the electorate to choose leaders based on merit," Tharoor said.
India considers the full implementation of the 13th Amendment in Sri Lanka "critical" for achieving reconciliation with the minority Tamil community, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Friday, underlining that New Delhi has always supported both the political and economic stability in the island nation.
Over 15 million voters are eligible to vote in the election being held under electoral districts-based proportional representation system.
'Ram Setu', also known as Adam's bridge, is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island, off the south-eastern coast of Tamil Nadu, and Mannar Island, off the north-western coast of Sri Lanka.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is hopeful that the issue will come handy to its efforts to gain political traction in Dravidian state as it gears up for the Lok Sabha polls.
'We have to keep a watch because India-Sri Lanka has a history that whenever there has been a change in government, either the connectivity projects have been questioned or cancelled or revived.'
There was no independent confirmation of the casualties and both sides are known to inflate the losses on the other.
Lankan MP M K Sivajilingam of Pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance, said the Sri Lankan government's move to devolve powers to region is a 'joke played by them (Lankan government) on minority Tamils' who have 'not been able to lead a peaceful life in their own nation'.
The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has submitted before the Supreme Court that it is discriminatory to exclude Tamil refugees from the purview of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and prayed that the legislation be declared null and void as it is unconstitutional and "destroys the basic fabric of secularism."
Tamil Nadu leader Vaiko on why he supports the struggle for a separate Eelam in Sri Lanka.
Already stripped off his military rank and medals, former Sri Lankan Army chief Sarath Fonseka, was held guilty of corruption charges by a second court martial, sentenced to a prison term of three years. Fonseka had been charged with favouring an arms firm headed by his son-in-law in defence deals during his time as army chief.
Chitranganee Wagiswara, Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Canada, has claimed that the arrival of 492 Sri Lankan Tamils aboard the cargo ship MV Sun Sea is a 'human smuggling operation with links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.'
Sherine Xavier, a Sri Lankan Tamil filmmaker from Canada, is happy. After months of struggle with the Indian censor board, she has finally obtained approval to screen her film Muttrupullia?, which deals with the post-war situation in Sri Lanka's Tamil areas.
"The state government is taking all out efforts to organise intensive patrols and effective screening of the refugees entering the country to avert infiltration of anti-national elements," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi said in his speech at the Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security in New Delhi.
In an interview with rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa, Colonel Hariharan talks about how Jayalalithaa is using anti-Lanka protests for political mileage and why the Rajapaksa government should immediately address the grievances of the nation's Tamil population
India has been consistently calling upon Sri Lanka to fulfill its commitments to protect the interests of the Tamil community and preserve the island nation's character as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society.
In stepped-up fighting, Sri Lankan security forces gunned down at least 43 Tamil Tigers and lost seven soldiers in the island's restive north, where the Air Force jets today raided an LTTE transport base in the rebel-dominated Kilinochchi area.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi to Colombo to apprise him of the ethnic Tamils issue, Sri Lankan Tamil MP Arumuga Thondaiman claimed today.
Pattali Makkal Katchi founder Dr S Ramadoss on Tuesday met Congress president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi and expressed concern over the killing of innocent Tamils in Sri Lanka. The Centre should not be a silent spectator to the suffering of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Ramadoss told Gandhi.The Sri Lankan Tamil issue has come to the forefront of national politics after Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani participated in a rally organised by Vaiko in New Delhi last week.
The Sri Lankan government on Sunday formally accepted the resignation of General Sarath Fonseka as the chief of defence staff and asked him to retire with immediate effect, rejecting his plea to serve till December 1.
He returned with figures of 4-22 in 12.1 overs to join an elite list comprising legends Vinoo Mankad, Bishan Singh Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, who have taken four wickets or more at the iconic venue.
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