With cushion in numbers,Congress plans next move

The DMK move to submit the letter to the President came even as Congress strategists were finetuning the draft resolution on alleged atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka to be adopted by Parliament as the DMK had demanded.

Despite the developments,the government was preparing to move a resolution on Wednesday,seeking an “independent and credible probe”. It is learnt that the word “international” was being considered given that it’s there in the preambular portion of the US-sponsored draft resolution at the UN Human Rights Council.

“We don’t want to move a unilateral resolution. At the same time,it has to be a meaningful resolution,” parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath told The Indian Express after the DMK leaders met the President. “So I will consult with all parties tomorrow. The BJP has made its position clear. CPM also has certain reservations. So we will have to discuss with them and see what we can do tomorrow.”

Nath also said the UPA was stable and had the support of 283 members. “If anybody goes to the President (contesting this),he knows about the support the government enjoys,” he said.

Government sources indicated that draft parliamentary resolution will also seek establishing a truth-seeking mechanism as an integral part of an independent probe. It will urge the government to work in this direction. This would also be in line with Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s address to the Congress Parliamentary Party earlier Tuesday.

“We are anguished by reports of unspeakable atrocities on innocent civilians and children,especially during the last days of conflict in 2009. These reports cannot go uninvestigated. That is why we demand an independent and credible inquiry into the violation of human rights Sri Lanka,” Sonia told the CPP.

The Congress decision to proceed with a parliamentary resolution,sources said,is an effort to convey that it remains committed to the Tamil cause even though the DMK and AIADMK are likely to find it inadequate. Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu had recently told party vice-president Rahul Gandhi that the party should not give room to the two Dravidian parties to allege that the Congress was soft on this issue. They also wanted the government to support the US draft.

The DMK’s announcement,government sources said,was a slight deviation from what had transpired in Chennai Monday between DMK supremo M Karunanidhi and Congress emissaries A K Antony,P Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad.

The impression the three ministers came back with is that the DMK would limit itself to pulling out its ministers from the government but not withdraw complete support to the UPA.

The BJP,which did not reveal its hand on the resolution,indicated that it’s against a country-specific resolution as it would amount to interference in another country’s internal affairs,which was the logic behind rejecting the Pakistan resolution.

The AIADMK sought to muddy the waters more by trashing the idea itself and asserted that all that matters is a strong resolution against Colombo at the UNHRC.

The Samajwadi Party,another key cog in the wheel,has not spelled out its stand but its supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav had taken a nuanced line on this issue in the Lok Sabha recently.

He had recalled that Sri Lanka was the first country to openly back India’s position in the 1962 border conflict with China and in that backdrop,indicated that any issue must be resolved bilaterally rather than effecting international censure.

Further,the Centre has its own red lines for any resolution,be it in Parliament or the UNHRC. The term “genocide” cannot be mentioned as it could open up possibilities of similar resolutions against India,especially on Kashmir and the Northeast. More so,it would be rejected by most countries in the UNHRC.

For the same reason,the government is against the term “unfettered access” to investigators that impinges on sovereignty of countries . A line removed in the final US draft.