India should not support US on Lanka: RSS

Taking a stand at variance with that of the BJP, the RSS on Sunday said India should not support the US-sponsored resolution in the UN against the Sri Lankan government on alleged human rights violations, calling it an attempt by the west to dictate to a democratic government.

Taking a stand at variance with that of the BJP, the RSS on Sunday said India should not support the US-sponsored resolution in the UN against the Sri Lankan government on alleged human rights violations, calling it an attempt by the west to dictate to a democratic government.

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BJP has been sympathetic to the resolution in the UN Human Rights Council and has supported regional parties -- DMK and AIADMK -- in demanding that the UPA government should make its stand clear on whether it would support the move.

RSS, however, maintained India should take an "unequivocal stand" against the US resolution.

"If India baulks today and adopts a 'neutral' position, it would find itself in the dock one day. India by its geo-political position must take a robust stand against the west interfering in issues not concerning them directly. There is no case for the US or any European nations to dictate to a democratically elected government," said an editorial in the latest issue of RSS' mouthpiece 'Organiser'.

Interestingly, the mouthpiece accuses LTTE of committing atrocities on ethnic Tamils and appears to support the Mahinda Rajapakse government which crushed the outfit. BJP has always spoken against the present Sri Lankan regime on the issue.

"While accusing the Sri Lankan government of human rights violations, one must remember that the enemy was not a hapless, unarmed group of peaceful activists. The cadres of LTTE were armed to the teeth with the latest machine guns, rocket launchers and tanks," the editorial said.

The Organiser further states that the last few weeks of the war that are under scrutiny now witnessed a pitched battle in which both sides "killed and got killed unrestrained".

"The number of child soldiers LTTE chief V Prabhakaran recruited and trained has not been documented. Boys and girls were picked up at an unsuspecting age, fed on a liberal dose of LTTE literature enumerating the torture and humiliation of the Tamils by the Lankans and were prepared to 'fight' on the command of the well-structured LTTE 'army'," the editorial said.

This observation has come at a time when there are reports of a footage showing Prabhakaran's 12-year-old son being shot brutally by the Sri Lankan army.

A Parliamentary delegation led by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu is slated to visit Sri Lanka soon to take up the issue of atrocities against Tamils during the last phase of the war with LTTE and the reported refusal to rehabilitate Tamils.

The RSS mouthpiece does, however, support India taking up the issue and insists that Sri Lankan government has the responsibility of rehabilitating the victims of the civil war.

"The Tamils of Sri Lanka are citizens of that country. At best, India has an interest and moral responsibility to speak for them, which India has been doing all these decades. But it makes no case for anybody else to intervene," Organiser said.

But the RSS is vehemently against the US resolution in the UN on Sri Lanka.