A delegation of the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which was to meet Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Friday, had failed to meet him on account of the minister's tight schedule ahead of his departure for Havana to attend the Non-Alignment Movement’s summit.
TNA sources told Hindustan Times that New Delhi would fix a fresh date for the meeting.
The sources also said that during its current sojourn in Chennai, the delegation would meet the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and others in the ruling coalition in New Delhi.
The TNA MPs’ delegation, which included Mavai Senathirajah, Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and Pathmini Chidambaranathan, has been requested to gather in Chennai and wait for a call from New Delhi.
But on Friday, they were told that there was a problem of scheduling, and that the meeting would have to be postponed indefinitely.
An Indian Prime Minister-TNA meeting would have been a major break from the past, in which the Indian political leadership had avoided the MPs, even if they were elected in a democratic election.
The MPs of the TNA had been complaining for a long time that New Delhi was discriminating against them and meeting only Sinhala and Muslim MPs, even though the TNA with 22 seats, was the largest Tamil bloc in the Sri Lankan parliament.
{{/usCountry}}The MPs of the TNA had been complaining for a long time that New Delhi was discriminating against them and meeting only Sinhala and Muslim MPs, even though the TNA with 22 seats, was the largest Tamil bloc in the Sri Lankan parliament.
{{/usCountry}}A request for a meeting with the Indian PM had been pending for the last two years.
Recently, the Tamil Nadu leader Vaiko took up their case with the Prime Minister, and got him to agree to meet them.