Leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and an important Sri Lankan politician said to be top on the LTTE’s hitlist, V Anandasangaree, today mooted a constitution on the Indian model as the permanent solution to the ethnic crisis in the island nation.‘‘The Sri Lankan Government should take advantage of the ban imposed on the LTTE by the European Union and present the Indian model Constitution as the only solution,’’ Anandasangaree said. The Tamil leader, who is in India to mobilise support for his ‘‘Indian model’’ package, said the EU ban was a ‘‘clear signal’’ to the Sri Lankan Government to find a solution on its own. ‘‘The government should not wait endlessly for the LTTE to come to the negotiating table. The Tigers will never accept any solution,’’ he said.Alleging that the LTTE was ‘‘denying’’ the Tamils both share in power and democratic space to function, he said both Tamils and Sinhalese would agree to a constitution that takes the path between a unitary and a federal state. ‘‘The Sinhalese are allergic to the word ‘federal’ and the Tamils to the term ‘unitary’,’’ he said.Denying he was advocating that the LTTE be isolated or marginalised, he said if Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse presented a solution to the international community, the Tigers would be under pressure to accept it. Even the pro-LTTE Tamil Nadu politicians could not demand more than the Indian model for Sri Lanka’s Tamils as they themselves were happy with the powers enjoyed by states in India, said the Tamil leader, who leads a midget faction of the TULF. The leaders of the majority group have shifted allegiance to the LTTE.Anandasangaree welcomed the demand of some pro-LTTE political parties in Tamil Nadu that an Indian delegation be sent to study the situation.‘‘But such a delegation should visit both army-controlled areas as well as the LTTE-held pockets in the north and east of the country to find out how Tamils are living there,’’ he said.While there have been instances of the armed forces perpetrating brutal violence against Tamil civilians in recent times, there has also been ‘‘grave provocation’’ by the LTTE, he said, referring to the claymore mine and grenade attacks which killed many civilians besides security personnel.
