The Bharathya Janatha Party (BJP) accused the Congress led ruling alliance of being insensitive to the sufferings of Sri Lankan Tamils and added the Indian government had not taken even 'a single meaningful step' to persuade the island government to ensure the safety of the Tamil civilians.
Senior BJP leader Venkiah Naidu also flayed the Tamil Nadu’s ruling party for not actively taking up’ the issue with New Delhi despite being a powerful constituent of the Cogress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and said the BJP would highlight the "failure" of the UPA on this issue during its election campaign.
"The LTTE is not the issue now. The safety, security and welfare of Tamils is important and the Sri Lankan government should pay attention to this," Naidu told reporters.
India should prevail upon Colombo to halt the hostilities and that if the country failed to act now, it would be construed as remaining a "mute spectator." he added.
He also criticised the Dravida Munettra Kazhagam (DMK) headed by Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanithi "for not actively taking up" the issue despite being part of the ruling UPA.
"Despite DMK's powerful presence in UPA, there are questions being raised as to why this issue has received such a lukewarm response," he said.
The BJP, L.K Advani also attacked Congress government’s attitude to the Sri Lankan conflict and said the UPA Government’s neighbourhood policy has been a disaster.
Under its rule, our neighbourhood turned more unfriendly towards India than at any time in the past sixty years, Nepal and Sri Lanka being the most striking examples.
Advani pointed out that the countries in the neighbourhood were no longer listening to India and added the National Democratic Alliance led by BJP, if elected to power, would pursue a “muscular foreign policy” that would preserve the country’s autonomy and secure its interests in the neighbourhood.