TAKE ACTION AGAINST VAIKO FOR TARGETING MODI: TN BJP
Saturday, 29 November 2014 | Kumar Chellappan | Chennai
Leaders of Tamil Nadu BJP asked the party’s Central leadership to take stringent action against MDMK leader Vaiko, who continues to be a member of the NDA, for the latter’s attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Vaiko had lambasted the Prime Minister for shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa during the SAARC Summit in Nepal on Thursday.
Prime Minister Modi had also extended his good wishes to President Rajapaksa who is seeking re-election in January 2015. “Rajapaksa is responsible for killing hundreds of Tamils in Sri Lanka. How can India’s Prime Minister exchange greetings with a person like Rajapaksa?” Vaiko told reporters on Thursday.
Though senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy was the only leader who had taken strong exceptions to Vaiko’s outbursts against Prime Minister Modi in the past, H Raja, party’s national secretary came down heavily on the MDMK leader for his comments. “I have informed the party leadership including the BJP president Amit Shah and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh about Vaiko’s criticism of the Prime Minister. I have told them that this attitude of Vaiko is not conducive for the functioning of the NDA in Tamil Nadu,” Raja told The Pioneer.
The Tamil chauvinistic comments of Vaiko, which were occasional in the past, have become frequent recently. He had ridiculed the action of President Rajapaksa releasing the five convicts hailing from Tamil Nadu who were sentenced to death by the Colombo High Court, terming it as a drama enacted by the leadership of the BJP and Sri Lanka.
But sources in the MDMK are of the view that Vaiko is waiting for the BJP to oust him from the NDA so that he could exploit some sympathy from Tamil Nadu voters. Thursday saw the MDMK general secretary complimenting Jayalalithaa, the AIADMK supremo for her good works to get Tamil the status of a classical language.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/take-action-against-vaiko-for-targeting-modi-tn-bjp.html
‘SAARC SHOULD ALLOW DISCUSSIONS ON BILATERAL ISSUES’
Saturday, 29 November 2014 | Kumar Chellappan | Chennai
While leaders of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) were pondering over how to make the eight-nation body into an effective tool for peace and prosperity in the region, a senior BJP leader has pointed out that the association suffers from inherent weakness due to its fragile and frail constitution.
“The SAARC does not allow discussion on bilateral issues between the founding members. It is a body to discuss only multi-lateral issues. The association should have China as a full time member to make SAARC a meaningful body like the G 20 or ASEAN,” said Subramanian Swamy, chairman, Strategic Affairs Committee of the BJP. He was delivering the first ever Lalith Athulathmudali Memorial Lecture organised under the auspices of Lalith Athulathmudali Foundation at Colombo.
Swamy pointed out that there were many bilateral issues between India and most of the other members of the SAARC. “The only country with which India has no issues is Bhutan. What is the point in having a body like this where bilateral issues are anathema,” he asked.
The BJP leader made it clear that he was not articulating the views of his party or any other party. “But don’t be surprised if the BJP or other political parties start following what I tell here in the near future. Without including the bilateral issues in the agenda and bringing China into the association, it is a sheer waste of time speaking about SAARC,” he said.
The trade between India and the other members of the SAARC does not touch even four per cent of India's trade with other countries. This is a paradox. A country like Pakistan goes to South Korea to import bicycles at exorbitant costs in spite of the fact that high quality bicycles are manufactured in Kapurthala in Punjab. This is just one example of the lacuna we face in SAARC," he pointed out.
Coming down heavily on bodies like United Nations Human Rights Council which pontificate to India and Sri Lanka about human rights violations, Swamy said there was no need for them (bodies like UNHRC) to interfere in our problems. "What we need urgently is a SAARC Human Rights Council where we can discuss our region specific issues from our own perspectives," opined the BJP leader.
Elaborating about the trade potential of the SAARC countries, he pointed out that India can outsource some of its needs to other countries which have strong foundation in certain core sectors. "The readymade business in which Bangladesh is strong is an example. Indian textile brands can make a big profit in association with companies in Bangladesh. It is a win-win situation," said Swamy.
He came down heavily on certain political parties in some of the SAARC nations which interfere in the internal dynamics of other countries by engineering defection and split in parties belonging to other countries. Though he was silent about the names, he had Sri Lankan Freedom Party in mind which saw crossing over of some prominent members to the Opposition following the announcement of the presidential elections.
Swamy paid glowing tributes to Lalith Athulathmudali, the former Internal Security Minister of Sri Lanka who was assassinated by the LTTE while addressing a public meeting. More than two lakh students belonging to economically weaker sections, irrespective of caste, creed and religion are benefited by the annual Mahapola Scholarship instituted by the Lalith Athulath Memorial Foundation. "Young graduates who complete their engineering and computer courses with the help of Mahapola Foundation Scholarship migrate to western countries as diaspora and finance the secession movements in Sri Lanka," said one of the LAF dignitaries. 'We would like them to do something for the country and countrymen," he said.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/nation/saarc-should-allow-discussions-on-bilateral-issues.html
SAARC SHOULD ALLOW DISCUSSION ON CONTENTIOUS ISSUES: SWAMY
Sunday, 22 June 2014 | PTI | Beijing
SAARC should shed the rule "barring discussion on contentious bilateral issues" and agree to a larger role for China and the US to improve its functioning, senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said today.
Founded in 1985, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) charter excludes "bilateral and contentious issues" from the ambit of deliberations, he said at a panel discussion on regional cooperation in South Asia at the World Peace Forum here.
Swamy, however, clarified that he is expressing his own views on the issue and not on behalf of the ruling BJP.
His observation calling for an end to India's longstanding view that no bilateral contentious issues should be raised at SAARC evoked immediate reaction from a Pakistani participant, who asked whether Islamabad could raise the Kashmir issue at a SAARC meet that New Delhi has tried to stall since the beginning of the grouping.
Acknowledging that it was a sharp question, Swamy said Pakistan could raise Kashmir issue at SAARC if Islamabad agrees not to raise it at the United Nations and other forums.
"If the suggestion is that it can be discussed only in SAARC, nowhere else, then there is no difficulty in discussing it.
"But if Pakistan says no and wants to raise it at the UN and elsewhere, the meaning of it goes," he said.
He mentioned former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had taken the Kashmir issue to UN and there were differences about the way partition was handled.
"Minus that, there is no room for dispute and even that we could discuss. But the commitment has to be from Pakistan they are not going to discuss it anywhere else," Swamy added.
Significantly, besides Swamy the panel comprised of representatives from Bangladesh, China and Myanmar.
None of Pakistani leaders and officials attending the meet that includes former Prime Minister Shoukat Aziz, former Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and former Joint Chief of Staff of Pakistan Army Ehsan-ul-Haq, were present at the discussion on South Asia.
"We have bilateral problem that made SAARC look like an anaemic body. We had a dispute with Pakistan on terrorism, they have issues with us on Kashmir.
"We have problems with Bangladesh on infiltration, issues with Sri Lanka," he later told PTI elaborating his stand.
He said the stiff rule not to let discussion on contentious bilateral issues made SAARC "toothles."
USA, China, Iran, EU, and Myanmar have observer status in SAARC. Its membership includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Swamy said SAARC will play an important role under the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Neighbours come first in Modi's foreign policy. Modi said the civilisation aspect that is Asia, neighbours, SAARC countries will come first followed by the US," he said.
"We are expecting Chinese President Xi Jinping to visit India. US is good for us in terms of technology transfer but our approach would be to deal with Asian neighbours first and then proceed further," he added.
He also said India has violated the rule of non-interference in SAARC by seeking the cancellation of SAARC Summit in 1999 by the Vajpayee government following the coup by then Pakistan army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf.
New Delhi has violated the non-interference norm again by internationalising human rights issue of Sri Lanka, he added.
SAARC cannot be refurbished unless we amend the charter, Swamy said.
Former Bangladesh Foreign Minister, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, who spoke earlier also said SAARC was hobbled by the rules to have decisions based on consensus. As a result no sensitive issues can be discussed, which rendered it into a talking shop.
China and the US, which are observers in SAARC should have a broader role to prevent their rivalry spilling into the regional bloc.
"India should have a trilateral mechanism with the US and China to discuss SAARC related issues", he said stating that they need not be made regular members but could be given a bigger role.
"Then SAARC will get some teeth," he said dismissing the perception that China will get a bigger role in India's backyard pointing to China developing ports in Sri Lanka after Indian declined to do so.
Swamy said India should shun the "Look East Policy", pursued by the previous UPA government to develop ties with Vietnam and Japan and other countries in China's neighbourhood.
"India can have close economic ties with Japan but better avoid a larger role in East Asia in view of deepening China-US rivalry," he said.
The emphasis instead should be on West Asia in view of the extremists take over of Iraq.
"Real thing to look for West Asia. We have to take serious call, due to developing conflict between Shias and Sunnis. All the external threats we face are all Sunni based.
Internally the Shia, Hindu relationship is cordial for centuries. We never had a conflict. We should bring Iran into SAARC's fold," he said.
He also criticised Manmohan Singh's government's decision to not to develop the Chabahar port in Iran which provided entry into Central Asia and Afghanistan.
About China's plans to have an economic corridor to Pakistan through the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir(PoK), Swamy said there are several projects but it is to be seen whether they materialise due to the volatile situation prevailing in the region.
If Taliban takes over Afghanistan after American troops leave in 2016 and subsequently have a Taliban compliant Pakistan, then the whole situation changes.
"Then these things mean nothing. The same way the trade route also," he said adding that India feels vindicated for its caution over Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project which has not materialised so far.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/top-stories/saarc-should-allow-discussion-on-contentious-issues-swamy.html