PM may travel to Colombo, DMK warns of 'consequences'

All India | Edited by Deepshikha Ghosh | Updated: November 01, 2013

New Delhi:  The Prime Minister is likely to attend a Commonwealth summit in Colombo this month, ignoring a collective demand from parties in Tamil Nadu to boycott the event to protest against Sri Lanka's alleged war crimes against ethnic Tamils.

Sources in the Prime Minister's Office say that the Foreign Affairs Ministry believes that the PM should attend the conclave which brings together all leaders of Commonwealth nations.  

M Karunanidhi, the chief of the DMK, a regional party which quit the PM's coalition in March, warned today that if Dr Manmohan Singh attends the conclave, "his party has to face the consequences."

The Tamil Nadu state assembly had adopted a resolution urging that the PM skip the event.  He said recently, "Will consider the sentiments of the Tamil people."
 
Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan, who belongs to the Congress, met with the PM today and urged him to miss the Colombo session.

The DMK and the Congress partnered in Tamil Nadu to fight the last two national elections together. Mr Karunanidhi pulled out of the union government after India refused to accuse Sri Lanka of genocide in the final months of its civil war in 2009. Parties in Tamil Nadu say the island's Tamil population was subjected to atrocities by the defence forces that won a decades-long civil war against the rebel Tamil Tigers.