Maran to attend CCS meeting today

The move comes on the heels of Karunanidhi’s controversial remark advocating the division of Sri Lanka on the Czech model, a remark which, apart from embarrassing the Government, has the potential of upsetting the delicate nature of Indo-Sri Lanka relations.

Clearly, the Centre would like to ensure that India speaks in one voice on the ongoing ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, and as part of this effort, the Prime Minister has decided to enlarge the participation in the sensitive security discussions to include a representative of his Tamil allies.

Although the Centre would not like to say so, Maran’s presence at tomorrow’s meeting would also help it to seek a clarification on Karunanidhi’s remark in order to pin the DMK down on its actual position on the current crisis.

Official sources said tomorrow’s discussions would be in the nature of a review rather than a decision-making exercise. The CCS is meeting after a gap of about 10 days during which the PM was holidaying in Manali.

Meanwhile, Vajpayee told correspondents on his return from Ladakh this evening that Karunanidhi’s remarks on partition of the island nation were his “personal views”.

He said there was no change in India’s position on Sri Lanka. “We are for a peaceful settlement of the ethnic strife within the framework of Sri Lankan unity and territorial integrity,” Vajpayee said.

The Foreign Office today strongly condemned the brutal killing of Sri Lankan Minister for Industrial Development C V Goonaratne and several others near Colombo, describing it as a cruel act of terrorism.

“This is an act of terrorism, an attack on the forces of democracy and a coercive attempt to achieve political objectives through violence,” said the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.