#NDTVExclusive | "Without the line of credit from India, I think people would be starving and dying of starvation, the entire country would have come to a standstill without fuel," says Shanakiyan Rasamanickam (@ShanakiyanR), MP, ITAK, Sri Lanka, on the #SriLankaEconomicCrisis. pic.twitter.com/PWMvEKOMwy
— NDTV (@ndtv) April 5, 2022
Speaking to New Delhi Television Ltd, Tamil National Alliance MP, Shanakiyan Rasamanickam stressed for India to push Sri Lanka to implement the 13th amendment as part of a solution to the dire economic crisis Sri Lanka finds itself in.
“There’s a large amount of Tamil diaspora who live out of Sri Lanka, who were chased away from this country, who fled this country due to the riots. The diaspora’s investments in this country could be another way of reviving the economy and collecting foreign exchange. But they won’t invest in Sri Lanka until there’s a political solution” Rasamanickam stated.
He further called for the restarting of international flights from Palay airport in Jaffna; the resumption of the ferry from Rameswaram; and the development of the Trincomalee harbour jointly which would revive the economy of the North-East. In December, the Indian government met with Sri Lanka’s finance minister Basil Rajapaksa where they expressed their interest to expand several projects in the Tamil homeland.
Read more here: India cracks the whip in Sri Lanka?
During the interview, Rasamanickam emphasised the role of Sri Lanka in supporting Sri Lanka through its economic crisis and in supporting Tamil political autonomy.
"Without the line of credit from India, I think people would be starving and dying of starvation, the entire country would have come to a standstill without fuel," he told NDTV.
He added:
“Any sort of political autonomy today that Tamils have in Sri Lanka is thanks to India” but noted that the 13th Amendment was not sufficient.