Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his fullest support to the Sri Lankan Tamil Community during the recent talks with the Tamil National Alliance delegation in New Delhi, according to several media reports. The meeting between Modi and the TNA delegation led by its leader R Sampanthan took place on August 23.

“We are 100 per cent with you, Modi said at the end of the meeting,” TNA delegation member M. A. Sumanthiran has told The New Indian Express.  Modi has also advised the TNA to seek a broader alliance with not only Tamil speaking parties such as the SLMC and the CWC but also incorporating “liberal elements” within the ruling alliance.

Sumanthiran has also told The New Indian Express that Modi had gone along with the TNA’s stand that there should be bilateral talks between the Lankan government and the TNA to solve the Tamil question.

However, Modi has rejected TNA’s request to appoint a Special Envoy for Sri Lanka stating that the Indian High Commission in Colombo is sufficiently equipped to handle the matters.   

Modi has also been keen on meeting Northern Provincial Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran. However political circles say whether a provincial CM can go overseas to meet a foreign leader without clearance from the Lankan government is a question to be answered before such a meeting could take place, if at all.