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Journalism of Courage
Bowing to pressure from political parties in Tamil Nadu,the government today shifted out Sri Lankan military personnel undergoing technical training at the Tambaram Air Force Station near Chennai to Bangalore.
All political parties in the state,including UPA partner DMK,had opposed training to Lankans at the base,raising the issue of equal status for Tamils in Lanka. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had described the training programme as an insult to Tamil people.
The airmen had been receiving ground training at the air force station. While they have been moved out from Tambaram,the government has not sent them back to Sri Lanka,as demanded by the political parties.
All Sri Lankan trainees are being sent off today from this station as per instruction of the Ministry of Defence, a terse statement issued by the defence spokesperson in Chennai read.
Trying to play down the issue,official sources claimed that the ongoing phase of training had got over and the trainees were just moving to the next phase. It is learnt that the training could be continued in Bangalore where the air forces training command is based.
While similar training of Sri Lankan personnel has been carried out in the past at Tambaram,a political decision was taken to carry out the course at a more neutral location.
Sri Lankan High Commission sources said this will not impact Sri Lankas defence cooperation with India,and that they deal with the Centre and not with any political parties or fringe groups in Tamil Nadu.
At any given point of time,300 to 400 Sri Lankan defence personnel cutting across all services are receiving training in different institutions in India.
The Chennai-based Officers Training Academy (OTA),which trains short service commission officers,also has a significant number of Sri Lankan officers undergoing training in technical courses. However,there is no move at present to shift out any officers from the academy,sources in the armed forces said.
The training schedule of other Sri Lankan personnel elsewhere is also not being disturbed.
India is one of the most important military training partners of Sri Lanka with exchanges increasing after the three-decade conflict with LTTE ended. At a recent seminar,Navy Chief Admiral Nirmal Verma had said that New Delhi has a robust military partnership with Colombo. Over half the training of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces is carried out in India. In the maritime context,sale of an OPV (offshore patrol vessel) and the transfer on lease of another,assistance for their refits and the restoration of KKS Harbour have been the highlights,other than the annual joint exercise between our navies, Verma had said.
