BJP breathes easy after fishermen’ release

Chennai: The BJP leadership is breathing easy as Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has set free the five TN fishermen sentenced to death for alleged drug trafficking.

The saffron party, which faced many a barb from the opposition parties and even its ally, Vaiko, now feels apparently relieved that its pressure on Rajapaksa has paid off.

The party construes this as the first diplomatic victory on the Indian fishermen issue that has been evading a solution for over a decade. “During our meeting in Delhi on Tuesday, External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told us that Modi’s government was taking all efforts and Lanka would release the five fishermen,” says Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, state BJP president.

Along with Union minister of state Pon Radhakrishnan, she had taken a delegation of Tamil Nadu fishermen to meet Ms Swaraj to plead for efforts to secure the release of the five fishermen. Ms Swaraj had advised the fishermen not to cross the border into the Lankan waters while fishing, Dr Tamilisai said.

Ms Swaraj had assured them the Centre would work out a lasting solution.